Fresh cursor agent install cannot list MCP servers

Bug Reports
1

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 Cursor – Installation
List MCP tools per Cursor – Model Context Protocol (MCP) for CLI

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

1 Like
2

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

3

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:

image
image992×950 51.8 KB

4

same issue

5

same here

6

seems to be fixed in v2025.10.01-f425367 :flexed_biceps:

7

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! :grin:

8

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.