Windsurf MCP Setup: Connect MCP Servers to Windsurf

What it is

An agentic IDE built by Codeium whose Cascade agent can reason across a codebase and run tools end to end.

How MCP works in Windsurf

Cascade is an MCP client. It reads a JSON config of servers it can connect to over stdio and remote transports, with variable interpolation so secrets stay out of the file.

Config file location

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json (on Windows %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf\mcp_config.json) holds 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 Windsurf config:

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

Restart or reload Windsurf 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