Cursor MCP setup: A complete guide for 2026

Cursor added first-class MCP support in late 2024 and the surface has matured fast. This guide covers the 2026 setup flow — including the per-project config that was easy to miss.

Where Cursor stores MCP config

Cursor reads MCP servers from two places. Whichever you edit, the format is the same as Claude Desktop.

Global: ~/.cursor/mcp.json — servers available in every workspace.
Per-project: <project-root>/.cursor/mcp.json — servers scoped to one codebase. Commit this to git if the whole team should share access.

Per-project is usually what you want for things like Postgres MCP pointing at a dev database. Global is for universal tools like GitHub or Firecrawl.

Open the config

Cursor: Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P → “MCP: Edit global configuration” or “MCP: Edit workspace configuration”. Both create the file if it does not exist.

Minimal config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
               "${workspaceFolder}"]
    },
    "postgres": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres",
               "postgresql://localhost:5432/mydb"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor supports the ${workspaceFolder} variable — handy for the filesystem server. Claude Desktop does not, so this is one of the small differences.

Verify servers are loaded

Open Cursor Settings (Cmd/Ctrl+,) → Features → MCP Servers. You should see a green circle next to each configured server. If a server is red, click it to see the error output.

Using MCP tools in Cursor

Three places where MCP tools appear:

Chat (Cmd/Ctrl+L) — agent mode picks tools automatically.
Composer (Cmd/Ctrl+I) — multi-file edits; can also call tools.
Inline edit (Cmd/Ctrl+K) — limited tool support, primarily for refactors.

Recommended starter set for Cursor

Filesystem scoped to ${workspaceFolder}
GitHub for PR and issue awareness
Postgres if your backend has one
Firecrawl for docs scraping on-demand

Debugging

Red status and no error — usually Node missing. which npx in Terminal; if empty, add Node to PATH.
Tools call but return nothing — check workspace permissions. Cursor will not let the agent write outside the project root by default.
Per-project config ignored — make sure you opened Cursor via File → Open Folder (or cursor .), not via double-clicking a single file.

Cursor vs Claude Desktop — which for MCP?

See our Claude Desktop vs Cursor vs Windsurf comparison for the full breakdown. Short answer: Cursor is better if your work is mostly coding in-repo; Claude Desktop is better for general-purpose agent workflows.