MCP Cursor IDE Integration: Setup and Tips

Cursor supports MCP servers over stdio and Streamable HTTP, configured per-project or globally via its settings file.

Project-Scoped Configuration

Add a .cursor/mcp.json file at the project root to scope servers to that codebase — useful when different repos need different tool sets (e.g. a database MCP server only in the backend repo).

Common Connection Issues

• Relative paths in the command field resolve against Cursor's install directory, not your project — use absolute paths
• Environment variables set in your shell profile aren't inherited; declare them explicitly in the env block
• Restart Cursor fully after editing the config — it doesn't hot-reload MCP definitions

Community Workflows

Share your .cursor/mcp.json setups below — the most common request is a working config for combining a local filesystem server with a remote database server.