Connect Cursor to Pressidium MCP | Pressidium Knowledge Base

This guide is the Cursor setup step of Get started with Pressidium MCP.

Read the main guide first for beta requirements, security considerations, supported operations, and general troubleshooting. Then follow the steps below to connect Cursor.

Follow these steps to connect Cursor to the Pressidium Dashboard:

1. Configure the Pressidium MCP server

Create or open ~/.cursor/mcp.json for a personal configuration. On Windows, this is .cursor\mcp.json inside your user profile folder. Create the .cursor directory if needed.

Add the pressidium entry below. If the file already contains other servers, merge this entry into its existing mcpServers object.

{   
  "mcpServers": {     
    "pressidium": {       
      "url": "https://mcp-dashboard.pressidium.com/dashboard",       
      "headers": {         
        "X-Pressidium-Email": "${env:PRESSIDIUM_EMAIL}",         
        "X-Pressidium-Password": "${env:PRESSIDIUM_PASSWORD}"       
      }     
    }   
  } 
}

Do not replace ${env:PRESSIDIUM_EMAIL} and ${env:PRESSIDIUM_PASSWORD} with your credentials when using this method. Cursor replaces these references with the environment-variable values you set in the next step.

For project-only configuration, use .cursor/mcp.json in the project instead. Cursor expands ${env:NAME} in headers; remote servers do not use the envFile setting. See Cursor's MCP documentation.

2. Set your Dashboard credentials

MacOS, Linux, or WSL: open a terminal, run bash, then run:

read -r -p "Pressidium Dashboard email: " PRESSIDIUM_EMAIL 
read -r -s -p "Pressidium Dashboard password: " PRESSIDIUM_PASSWORD 
printf '\n' 
export PRESSIDIUM_EMAIL PRESSIDIUM_PASSWORD

The password is hidden while you type and is not entered as a shell command. Start your AI application from this same shell so it inherits the variables.

In Windows PowerShell, run the following lines:

$env:PRESSIDIUM_EMAIL = Read-Host "Pressidium Dashboard email" 
$env:PRESSIDIUM_PASSWORD = [System.Net.NetworkCredential]::new(     
    '', (Read-Host "Pressidium Dashboard password" -AsSecureString) 
).Password

You will be prompted to enter your actual Dashboard email and password.

These values remain available only for the current PowerShell session. They are still secrets in the application's environment; this method does not encrypt them there. Repeat the step in a new session, or use your organization's approved credential-loading method.

Desktop applications already running will not automatically inherit newly set variables. Fully quit the application before launching it from the configured shell. WSL variables are separate from the environment of a native Windows application.

3. Start Cursor from the same terminal

If Cursor is already running, fully quit it. Don't just close the project window. Fully exit Cursor.

Then launch Cursor again from the terminal by running cursor .

This allows Cursor to inherit the PRESSIDIUM_EMAIL and PRESSIDIUM_PASSWORD variables.

4. Verify the connection

When Cursor opens, go to Customize and open the MCP tab.

Find pressidium, enable it, and check its connection status.

Open a Cursor Agent conversation and start verifying with this prompt:

Use pressidium_whoami to verify my connection and show the selected team if available. Then use pressidium_list_sites to list the websites I can access. Include website names and whether each is Managed Hosting or standalone EDGE. Do not change any website settings.

Check that the returned account, team, and websites match what you expect in the Pressidium Dashboard.

For additional verification prompts and example tasks, return to Get started with Pressidium MCP.

Add Pressidium Agent Skills (Optional)

Once your Pressidium MCP connection is working, you can optionally add Pressidium Agent Skills for reusable Pressidium workflows.

See Use Pressidium Agent Skills with Pressidium MCP for installation and verification instructions for Cursor.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
Credentials work in the terminal but not in Cursor	Fully quit Cursor, set the variables again, and launch Cursor from the same terminal with `cursor .`. Confirm that the variables exist in the environment where Cursor actually runs.
Cursor does not expand the credential variables	Confirm the configuration uses `${env:PRESSIDIUM_EMAIL}` and `${env:PRESSIDIUM_PASSWORD}` exactly as shown.
No `pressidium` server appears in Cursor	Check the `mcp.json` location and JSON syntax, then restart Cursor and inspect Settings → MCP or Customize → MCP.
Cursor attempts an OAuth or `/register` flow	Confirm that you used the custom-header configuration shown above and the exact server URL.

For authentication, permissions, unsupported operations, analytics, background jobs, and other issues that are not specific to Cursor, see the troubleshooting section in Get started with Pressidium MCP.