Creativity · MCP — client

Cursor as an MCP Client

Cursor is an MCP client out of the box. Add a servers block to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per-project) and every Cursor Agent session — Ask, Agent, and Composer — can invoke those tools. It is the default way developers bring MCP into their coding loop without leaving the editor.

MCP facts

Kind: client
Ecosystem: anthropic-mcp
Language: native (Electron fork of VS Code)
Transports: stdio, http, sse

Capabilities

Loads MCP servers from .cursor/mcp.json — same schema as Claude Desktop
Composer and Agent modes auto-discover tools and invoke them during tasks
Per-project config checked into the repo — shared MCP setup for whole team
Tool approval UI with one-click enable / disable per server

Install

Download Cursor from https://cursor.com

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": { "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_xxx" }
    },
    "postgres": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres", "postgres://localhost/dev"]
    }
  }
}

Frequently asked questions

Global or project-level mcp.json?

Global for personal tools (GitHub, filesystem, browsing). Project-level for team tools that should be shared via git (database, Linear, Figma). Cursor merges both — project wins on name conflicts.

Does Cursor work with local models and MCP at the same time?

Yes — Cursor's model provider and MCP client are independent. You can run Claude Sonnet as the backing model while calling MCP servers that talk to your codebase, database, or design tool.

How is Cursor's MCP different from Claude Desktop's?

Schema is identical, but Cursor exposes MCP inside a code editor — the Agent can read files, run terminal commands, and call MCP tools in the same loop. Claude Desktop is chat-centric, no editor integration.

Sources

Cursor — Model Context Protocol — accessed 2026-04-20
Cursor documentation — accessed 2026-04-20