Agents Window: "Projects" can't use my local MCP servers (~/.cursor/mcp.json), even in Cloud + Local

Ideas Feature Requests
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1

I rely on many custom stdio MCP servers (databases, Airflow, NetSuite) defined in ~/.cursor/mcp.json. They use local scripts and credentials.

  • Editor chat: all work.
  • Projects: none available, even with “Cloud + Local”.
  • Cloud agents can’t use them (remote VM, no local scripts, secrets or network).

This is the one thing stopping me from using Projects.

Request: let Projects and local agents load user-level ~/.cursor/mcp.json, or let me mark MCP servers to run on my machine.

5

I also tried adding them as a plugin from a local repo, and Projects still couldn’t use them.

7

Hey @Yoad_Simon,

This is how Projects work today: the Project’s coordinator always runs as a Cloud Agent on Cursor’s servers, even with your machine added under Run on. Cloud Agents only load MCP servers from your Cloud Agents MCP settings at cursor.com/agents, not from ~/.cursor/mcp.json. So the coordinator itself can’t start command (stdio) servers that rely on scripts, credentials or network access on your computer. More on this in the Projects docs and Cloud Agent MCP docs.

Agents the coordinator starts on your machine are different. They run through Cursor’s local worker, which should load the command (stdio) servers from your ~/.cursor/mcp.json when it starts. To use your database, Airflow and NetSuite servers in a Project today:

  1. Open the Project and make sure Run on includes your machine, not just Cloud.
  2. In the Project chat, ask for a local agent by name, for example: “Start a local agent on my machine to pull last week’s failed Airflow runs using the airflow MCP tools.”
  3. Open that agent from the Project’s Agents list and check that it lists your MCP tools.

The coordinator can’t see those tools itself, so naming the server in your request helps it hand the work to a local agent.