Cursor MCP Setup: Connect MCP Servers to Cursor

What it is

An AI-first code editor forked from VS Code, with an agent mode that can plan and edit across your codebase.

How MCP works in Cursor

Cursor is an MCP client for its Agent/Composer. It supports stdio, SSE, and Streamable HTTP servers, and popularized the ~/.cursor/mcp.json format that several other clients now mirror.

Config file location

~/.cursor/mcp.json holds global servers and .cursor/mcp.json holds project servers, each an mcpServers object.

Add your first server

A good first server is Playwright MCP — Microsoft's browser automation server. It runs locally over stdio via npx, needs no API key, and gives the agent a real browser to drive. Here is the verified Cursor config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Restart or reload Cursor after saving, then confirm the server's tools show up. Swap in any other server from the directory using the same structure.

Transports & platforms

FAQ