Plaid aggregates bank transactions, balances, and account data across thousands of financial institutions. Connecting Plaid to clariBI gives your AI analyses direct visibility into cash flow, vendor spend, and account-level activity.
Why connect Plaid
Cash visibility usually requires logging into multiple bank portals or running CSV exports. Plaid replaces that with a single permissioned read connection.
Once connected, you can ask "What did we spend on cloud infrastructure last quarter?" or "What is our current cash position across all accounts?" and the answer comes back with the right transactions referenced.
How the connection works
clariBI talks to Plaid through its hosted MCP server at https://api.dashboard.plaid.com/mcp/sse. Authentication uses an OAuth flow that clariBI registers itself for (no developer console setup on your side). Tokens stay encrypted server-side and never leave clariBI in clear form.
sequenceDiagram
actor U as You
participant C as clariBI
participant V as Plaid
U->>C: Click Authorize with Plaid
C->>V: Open OAuth authorization
V-->>U: Grant read access?
U->>V: Approve
V-->>C: Authorization code
C->>V: Exchange code for tokens
V-->>C: Access + refresh tokens
C->>C: Encrypt and store credentials
C-->>U: Connection ready
Available tools
clariBI exposes the read-only Plaid tools that the vendor's MCP server publishes at connection time. Write operations (create, update, delete, send, refund) are filtered out by a name-pattern blocklist before any tool reaches the analysis engine, so connecting Plaid cannot modify data on the vendor side.
The exact tool inventory depends on the Plaid features your account has access to. After connecting, try a few natural-language questions to see what Plaid data clariBI can pull.
Data flow during analysis
When you ask a question that maps to Plaid, the AI engine routes to the right tool, reads the result, and pairs the answer with a chart you can pin to a dashboard.
sequenceDiagram
actor U as You
participant C as clariBI
participant AI as AI engine
participant V as Plaid
U->>C: Ask a question about banking and transaction data
C->>AI: Plan the analysis
AI->>V: Call the right tool
V-->>AI: Tool result
AI->>AI: Summarize and chart
C-->>U: Answer plus visual
Setting up the connection
- Open Data Sources in the clariBI sidebar.
- Click Add data source.
- Open the MCP Servers tab.
- Click the Plaid card.
- Click Authorize with Plaid.
- Sign in to Plaid in the popup window and grant the requested read scopes.
- Back in clariBI, give your data source a name.
- Click Finish.
Permissions and data access
clariBI requests read access to your linked Plaid accounts, transactions, and balances. No write or transfer scopes are requested. Disconnect anytime from your Plaid dashboard or from clariBI Settings.
Troubleshooting
| Error | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "No accounts returned" | No bank accounts are linked in your Plaid product. | Link at least one account in your Plaid dashboard, then reconnect from clariBI. |
| "item_login_required" | A bank requires you to re-authenticate. | Open Plaid Link inside your Plaid dashboard to update the credentials. |