Cursor

Cursor’s MCP support reads from ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per-project). Both work the same.

Sign in with OAuth (recommended)

Point Cursor at the server URL with no credentials, Cursor runs the browser sign-in for you:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "emcp-tools": {
      "url": "https://your-site.test/wp-json/mcp/emcp-tools-server"
    }
  }
}

Open Cursor’s MCP settings; when the server connects, your browser opens to approve access from your WordPress login. The plugin’s EMCP Tools → Connection screen also has a one-click Add to Cursor deep link that fills this in.

Requires an HTTPS site with OAuth enabled (EMCP Tools → Connection: on by default on HTTPS). Only administrators can approve. Revoke access any time under Connected apps.

HTTP with an Application Password

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "emcp-tools": {
      "url": "https://your-site.test/wp-json/mcp/emcp-tools-server",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Basic BASE64_ENCODED_CREDENTIALS"
      }
    }
  }
}

Generate the base64 credentials:

echo -n "admin:xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx" | base64

(Application passwords come from WordPress admin → Users → Profile → Application Passwords.)

The plugin’s EMCP Tools → Connection admin screen has a one-click config generator that fills this in for you.

Verify

Open Cursor settings → MCP tab. The emcp-tools server should show as connected with a green dot and a non-zero tool count.

If it shows red, click the entry to see the error. Most common:

• Network error: URL is wrong or WordPress is unreachable. Test with curl.
• 401 Unauthorized: application password is wrong, the user account doesn’t have edit_posts, or the base64 encoding is missing/wrong.
• Server returned 0 tools: connection worked but no tools registered. See No tools appearing.

Tool budget

Cursor doesn’t enforce a hard tool cap, but loading up to 207 tools into Cursor’s context costs tokens on every request. If you want to keep the context lean, flip on Compact tool mode. It collapses the surface to 3 dispatcher tools (list-tools, get-tool-schema, call-tool) that reach every tool on demand.