quick start

Cursor

Cursor reads MCP servers from ~/.cursor/mcp_servers.json or the in-app Settings → MCP panel. Either flow works.

1. Install argand-mcp

cargo install --git ssh://git@git.argand.org/nicweyand/argand.git argand-mcp

Requires Rust. Binary lands in ~/.cargo/bin/argand-mcp — make sure that's on your PATH.

2a. JSON config (recommended)

Open or create ~/.cursor/mcp_servers.json and paste:

~/.cursor/mcp_servers.json json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "argand": {
      "command": "argand-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Cursor watches this file at runtime — no restart usually needed, but a window reload (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P → "Developer: Reload Window") guarantees pickup.

2b. In-app settings (alternative)

  1. Open Cursor Settings (Cmd/Ctrl + ,)
  2. Find the MCP / Tools section
  3. Click "Add new MCP server"
  4. Name: argand, Command: argand-mcp, Args: leave empty
  5. Save. Cursor will spawn the server lazily on first use.

Verifying it works

Open Cursor's chat sidebar and ask the model to search Argand for something. Cursor's tool picker will show argand:search, argand:fetch_url, argand:cite, and argand:package_lookup. If the tools aren't listed, check the MCP logs in Cursor (Help → Toggle Developer Tools → Console) for argand-mcp startup errors. Most common cause: binary not on PATH.

Tool surface details: MCP stdio reference.