Cursor cli mcp error problem

Support Help
, ,
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor CLI

Describe the Bug

Hi!

  1. An error appears in the mcp list in cursor cli.
  2. And I received this reply from the cli agent.

Since we don’t have direct access to the local MCP server (time), we can’t actually send an RPC to that server. Instead of cursor/MCP
Let me explain exactly how it is called from the client.

Question

Is my json file structure the problem?

Or what kind of installation will not work?

Is there a way to delete and reinstall using cursor cli?

thank you

  • If this is not a bug report, please move it to the Help category!

Steps to Reproduce

.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

2026-03-16_18-17-10.png
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Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.7.0-pre.66.patch.0 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: feb990dea9d6525ea37218766cb8e83b64061e10
Date: 2026-03-14T21:26:43.430Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Nightly
Electron: 39.4.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

CLi : 2026.03.11-6dfa30c

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Auto

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ba460f4b-d352-4dca-8fba-7752f0bbde8c

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, I can see all three servers are erroring out in the screenshot.

To figure out what’s going on, I need two things:

  1. Your mcp.json contents. Feel free to redact tokens or keys. I just need the structure to see if you’re using stdio servers or remote URLs.
  2. The exact command you’re using to start the CLI. Are you passing --approve-mcps? Without it, MCP servers might not load at all:
    agent --approve-mcps -p --trust "your prompt"

A couple of common gotchas with CLI + MCP:

  • The CLI doesn’t inherit your shell environment variables. Any env vars your servers need must be set explicitly in the config:

    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "example": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "some-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "API_KEY": "your-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

  • There are known issues with MCP in the CLI on Windows. Your config will help narrow down which one you’re hitting.

Share the config and we’ll go from there.

5

Hi!.

  1.

    When starting cli : Powershell → D:\commit agent → Enter and run.

  2. “D:\commit.cursor\mcp.json”

The contents are below.

{
“mcpServers”: {
“time”: {
“command”: “python”,
“args”: [“-m”, “mcp_server_time”],
“enabled”: true
}
}
}

Thanks

6

Thanks for the config, the structure looks correct.

A couple things to double-check:

  1. Does the server work outside the CLI? Open PowerShell, go to your project directory, and run:

    python -m mcp_server_time

    If you get an error here, the issue is in the Python module itself, not the CLI.

  2. Does it work in the Cursor IDE? In Cursor, check Settings > MCP and see if time shows up as connected. If it works in the IDE but not in the CLI, that points to a known Windows-only CLI issue.

There are known issues with stdio-based MCP servers in the CLI on Windows. The team is aware and tracking it. Confirming the two checks above will help narrow down the cause.

7

After installing Python, it was successful.

However, I need to test whether the previously used Playlight MCP and DevTool MCP are also working.

And now it wasn’t the project folder. (it’s D:commit root workspace)

So I also need to test the project folder.

If an error occurs, I will tell you again.

Thanks

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8

An error occurred in a folder in the project.
I Sent by email.

Thank You

9

Good, I can see from the screenshots that the root workspace issue is fixed. The mcp_server_time module just wasn’t installed, and after running pip install mcp-server-time everything works in both the CLI and the IDE.

About the project folder error you mentioned in your last message, can you share the details here in the thread instead of email? Specifically:

  • The exact error output you’re seeing
  • Are you using a virtual environment venv in that project? If yes, you might need to install the module there too:
    pip install mcp-server-time
  • Does the project have its own .cursor/mcp.json, or is it using the global config?

That’ll help confirm whether it’s the same missing module issue or something else.

10

Hi

  • It is not a virtual environment.
  • These are self-configured settings for each root and project.

Problem.

  • Root folder: : D:\commit
    Subproject folder: D:\commit\rsvshop

    Root folder CLI: works
    Subproject CLI: not working
    Subproject IDE works

  • Json was successful in the root folder and pasted into the subproject.(rsvshop)

    I’m curious why it doesn’t work in the subproject folder CLI.

    Thank You

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11

Got it. Let’s try a different approach. Please run these commands in PowerShell.

  1. Try checking a specific server:
agent mcp list-tools time

If it doesn’t work, the command should print the actual error.

  1. Also try running it with the --approve-mcps flag:
agent --approve-mcps

One more thing. Can you confirm the exact path to mcp.json in the subproject? Is it D:\commit\rsvshop\.cursor\mcp.json?

And a quick workaround to test. Try running the CLI from anywhere, but specify the subproject:

agent --workspace D:\commit\rsvshop

Please tell me what output you get from each of these commands.