Fresh cursor agent install cannot list MCP servers

[erich-clickup (Erich Elendt)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor CLI

Describe the Bug

Hi cursor team, i do not have spawn on my laptop, could it please be added to the documentation as a prerequisite or included in the documentation?

(3.10.13) test $ cursor-agent mcp list
Failed to list MCP servers: spawn npx -y @upstash/context7-mcp ENOENT
(3.10.13) test $ npx -y @upstash/context7-mcp
Context7 Documentation MCP Server running on stdio
^C
(3.10.13) test $ spawn npx -y @upstash/context7-mcp
zsh: command not found: spawn
(3.10.13) test $ cursor-agent --version
2025.08.27-24c29c1

Steps to Reproduce

Install per Installation | Cursor Docs
List MCP tools per MCP | Cursor Docs

Expected Behavior

You should be able to follow docs step-by-step as a noob and things work for you

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

(3.10.13) test $ cursor-agent --version
2025.08.27-24c29c1

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[msfeldstein (Michael Feldstein)]

can you share your mcp config? It looks like you have spawn in your configuration, which you should not

[Julian_Rubisch]

I can confirm this:

$ cursor-agent --version                                                                                                                
2025.09.12-4852336

$ cursor-agent mcp list
No MCP servers configured (expected in .cursor/mcp.json or \~/.cursor/mcp.json)

my .cursor/mcp.json:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "context7": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@upstash/context7-mcp"
            ]
        },
        "fetch": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-server-fetch"
            ]
        }
    }
}

The Cursor IDE lists these MCP servers just fine:

[Igor_Azizov (Igor)]

same issue

[necros]

same here

[Julian_Rubisch]

seems to be fixed in v2025.10.01-f425367

[anuragaofl]

Sharing a discovery that might help us bandaid our way to a workaround…

cursor-agent’s response of whether it lists the MCP servers or not appears 1:1 correlated to the existence of the approvals file at /Users/my.username/.cursor/projects/Users-my-username-path-to-my-repo-clone/mcp-approvals.json (I’m on Mac, but I’m confident there’s an equivalent for Linux/Windows). When this file exists, cursor-agent is able to list the MCPs correctly. When it doesn’t, cursor-agent doesn’t list them. Obviously we (the general public) is unaware of how what else cursor-agent updates in the process that creates this file. But just from this isolated test, it seems like it relies on its presence.

Code explorers and scientists- let’s find a workaround with this knowledge to force a fresh cursor-agent install to list the MCPs correctly!

[Sparky1970]

Yep.

$ cursor mcp list
Failed to list MCP servers: Error POSTing to endpoint (HTTP 405):

No reason given.

cursor-agent: 2025.10.02-bd871ac

cursor: 1.7.46

To the best of my knowledge these are both the latest available packages.

[Sparky1970]

Found a work-around.

I was using the Atlassian Rovo MCP server, using their recommended config:

 "Atlassian-MCP-Server": {
      "url": "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/sse"
    }

Turns out this works in the Cursor IDE but not in the Cursor Agent, resulting in errors which aren’t useful.

The work around is to use the recommended configuration for “older” cursor versions:

"mcp-atlassian-api": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/sse"
      ]
    }