After the last update, it was found that several MCP Servers configured in the settings could no longer be used in Agent mode, even though the prompt explicitly required the use of tool xxx.
Steps to Reproduce
The agent’s response is that only the cursor-browser-extension and cursor-ide-browser services can be detected. I think these should be two officially built-in services. From the agent’s thinking process, it is found that service discovery is done in the \mcps directory. Does that mean that the MCP Server provided by oneself cannot only be configured in mcp.json, but also needs to be manually configured in the \mcps directory? Are there any configuration specifications?
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I see you selected “Background Agent” as the bug location. If you mean the Cloud/Background Agent (the one used via web/GitHub/Slack), custom MCP servers aren’t supported there yet. The Background Agent runs in the cloud and can only see the built-in services (cursor-browser-extension, cursor-ide-browser). This is a known limitation. Here’s a similar thread requesting this feature: Background agent doesn’t call MCP.
If the issue is with regular Agent mode in the IDE (local), please share:
What’s the status of the MCP servers in Cursor Settings > Tools & MCP, is it green/yellow/red?
The Request ID of the chat where the agent doesn’t see the MCP tools (Cursor Settings > General > Privacy, turn off Privacy Mode before testing)
Let me know if this helps or if you want me to clarify anything.
First, I would like to add some information about myself:
• My issue occurs in the local Cursor client.
• The MCP Server I need to use shows a green status and can load all tool lists normally.
• 4fd471bc-a6a5-4241-9848-c651ff9d785b is the corresponding Request ID.
It was clearly stated in this conversation that the service I configured is missing the “MCP tool description file”. However, I never configured the so-called tool description file before the recent update; I could use it successfully just by configuring it in mcp.json.
So I would like to ask: has the configuration specification for the tool been updated? If so, could you please tell me how to check the new specifications?
This looks like it might be related to a known issue that was fixed recently, but since you’re on version 2.4.27 and still seeing it, something else might be going on.
The “MCP tool description file” message is odd. Normally nothing is required besides the mcp.json config. Could you share:
The MCP server logs for the affected server (Output > MCP:your-mcp)
A screenshot of the agent’s exact response where it mentions “tool description file”
That’ll help us figure out if this is a regression or a different issue.
Regarding the MCP service logs you mentioned, I’m not sure if the location I’m looking for is the window I opened at the bottom left of the screenshot. If it is, then it’s strange that no logs appeared here after the Agent re-initiated the question.
On the right side is the agent’s response content, and I have attached the English translation in the figure, hoping this is what you want to see.
Additionally, I checked that my current version of Cursor is indeed 2.4.27. In another discussion thread about the same issue, I saw that some users have updated to version 2.4.28, but when I tried to update, it prompted that there are no available updates. The problem I’m encountering now is exactly because I updated to version 2.4.27; I never encountered this situation when using the older version.
Thank you for your help. Following your prompt, I tried asking the Agent again, but it still couldn’t access the MCP Server I configured. Tips: My Cursor has now been updated to version 2.4.28.
