The three building blocks that turn AI that talks into AI that does the work, safely
MCP exposes everything to an AI client as one of three things: tools, resources, or prompts. Understand these three and you understand exactly what your assistant can see, what it can do, and what stays behind a human. Here is what each one is — and what DataTether gives you for it without writing any code.
Block 1
Tools: the actions AI can take
A tool is a single, well-defined action: list open orders, get a customer, update a status. The AI chooses the right tool and supplies the arguments; the tool decides what actually runs.
What DataTether gives you:
- Typed read and write tools auto-generated from your OData metadata — no hand-coding.
- Read tools ready immediately; write tools off until you turn them on.
- Every write paused at an approval gate, reviewed by a named human before it executes.
Block 2
Resources: the data AI can read
A resource is readable context: a schema, a document, a set of records. Resources let the assistant ground its answers in your real data instead of guessing.
What DataTether gives you:
- Your ERP entities exposed as clean, readable resources — labels renamed, noise removed.
- Only the entities and fields you choose are ever visible to the client.
- Live data at request time, so answers reflect the system of record, not a stale copy.
Block 3
Prompts: reusable tasks your team can trust
A prompt is a saved, parameterized task — “summarize overdue invoices for this account” — that anyone can run the same way every time, instead of re-explaining it to the AI.
- Turn common questions into one-click, repeatable prompts.
- Standardize how your team asks, so the answers stay consistent and reviewable.
- Pair prompts with the same governed tools — no shortcut around approvals.
Why it matters to you
These three blocks are the difference between an assistant that describes the work and one that does it — with scope, approvals, and an audit trail you can show compliance. DataTether generates all three from a single connection, so you skip the months of building and get straight to safe, useful answers.