Plugin MCP (Notion) enabled in Settings but Agent cannot access tools until MCP list is toggled

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Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Notion plugin MCP shows as enabled in Settings → Tools & MCP → Plugin MCP Servers (notion — 14 tools, 2 resources enabled), but Agent sessions frequently cannot call Notion MCP tools. The agent reports “MCP server does not exist: notion”. Before opening MCP settings or toggling the server, ~/.cursor/projects//mcps/ lacks plugin-notion-workspace-notion/tools/*.json. After toggling, tools appear and notion-fetch works.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Install Notion plugin, enable at project level (.cursor/settings.json: notion-workspace enabled).
  2. Confirm Settings shows notion ON with 14 tools.
  3. Start new Agent chat, ask to fetch Notion page via notion-fetch.
  4. Observe: MCP server does not exist.
  5. Open Settings → Tools & MCP or toggle notion off/on.
  6. Retry: notion-fetch works; mcps/plugin-notion-workspace-notion/tools/ now exists.

Expected Behavior

When Plugin MCP shows connected with tools enabled, every new Agent session should immediately have access to those tools without manual toggle or opening MCP settings.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Cursor 3.6.31
macOS Darwin 25.5.0 (arm64)

Additional Information

Same class of bug as existing reports about MCP tool descriptor files not being written on initial connection (race condition). Workaround: toggle Plugin MCP off/on or open MCP settings before each Agent session.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report with a repro and the path in ~/.cursor/projects/<project>/mcps/, that really helps.

This is a known bug. It’s a race condition in the MCP snapshot pipeline. Settings shows “14 tools enabled” from one cache, but the Agent builds the tools list from another source, a durable snapshot, which sometimes hasn’t been written yet when the session starts. That’s why you see “MCP server does not exist: notion”. Toggling off and on, or opening MCP settings, forces the snapshot to be written and fixes the race, so your workaround works.

The same symptom has already been reported here: MCP tools only available to Agent after manually toggling server off/on (even when already enabled)

We’re tracking this on our side, but I can’t share an exact fix timeline yet. For now, the toggle or opening MCP settings before starting a session is the most reliable workaround. When there’s an update, I’ll reply in the thread.