MCP per IDE

Cursor MCP setup

Enable the webfetch MCP server in Cursor's settings so Composer and chat can find license-safe images.

Cursor ships first-party MCP support in the stable channel. The config lives in project- or user-level JSON.

#One-command setup

Cursor doesn't ship a cursor mcp add-style command yet, so the recommended path is the config file.

#Manual setup

Open Cursor Settings → MCP → "Add new MCP server", or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webfetch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@webfetch/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY": "...",
        "PEXELS_API_KEY": "...",
        "PIXABAY_API_KEY": "...",
        "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID": "...",
        "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

For a project-scoped config, save the same JSON to .cursor/mcp.json at your repo root. Cursor merges project config over user config.

Reload Cursor (Cmd-Shift-P → "Developer: Reload Window") for the server to register.

#Verification

Open Composer (Cmd-I) and prompt:

Use the webfetch MCP to search for a CC0 portrait of Brian Eno,
minimum 1200px wide, then print the attribution line for the top result.

The tool panel in Composer should show the search_images call with arguments and the returned candidates. The final message will include the attribution.

#Troubleshooting

  • MCP server doesn't appear in Settings — Cursor caches aggressively. Fully quit and relaunch, not just Reload Window.
  • "Server failed to start" — open Cursor's Developer Console (Cmd-Shift-I) and look for the subprocess stderr. Most commonly npx isn't on the PATH visible to Cursor; set "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/npx" (or wherever which npx reports).
  • Tool calls return nothing — check licensePolicy. Cursor's Composer tends to be cautious and may default to safe-only for your entire chat. If you need broader recall, prompt "use licensePolicy prefer-safe".

#Next steps