I’ve been trying to connect Paper (paper.design) mcp to a Project in Cursor.
I have both desktop apps installed. Here’s the error I consistent get when running the prompt within the Cursor project:
I still can’t create the Hello World frame. Paper’s tools are disconnected, so there is no canvas to write to.
Tool discovery failed again. ~/.paper/bin/paper is missing, nothing is listening on port 29979, and authentication from this cloud session is unavailable. Open Paper Desktop on your computer with a file open, then run the same prompt in a local Cursor chat.
I actually got it to work in a new chat, and it connected to Paper and the prompt worked. Why can’t I connect it to my existing Project?
This comes down to where each chat runs. A Project’s agent runs on a cloud machine, not on your computer. Paper’s MCP connects to the Paper Desktop app on your own Mac, so an agent running in the cloud has no way to reach it. That’s why the Project keeps reporting Paper’s tools as disconnected, while a regular chat on your Mac connects fine.
For anything that needs Paper, use a local agent in the Cursor desktop app (rather than a Cloud Agent or Project):
Open Paper Desktop and open the file you want to work in.
In Cursor, start a New Chat outside the Project, with your repo folder open locally.
Run your prompt there.
You can keep using the Project for the cloud side of the work. I’ve also passed along to the team that local design tools like Paper can’t be used from inside a Project.