Tenets MCP Server for Cursor IDE¶

Free, open source MCP server that gives Cursor's AI the intelligent code context it needs. NLP-powered ranking finds relevant files automatically.

Why Use Tenets with Cursor?¶

Without Tenets	With Tenets
AI guesses which files to read	AI gets ranked, relevant files
Manual @-mentioning of files	Automatic context building
Context window filled with noise	Token-optimized, high-signal context
Each prompt starts fresh	Persistent sessions with pinned files

Quick Setup (2 minutes)¶

Step 1: Install¶

Bash

pip install tenets[mcp]

Step 2: Configure Cursor¶

Create or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tenets": {
      "command": "tenets-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Step 3: Restart Cursor¶

Quit and reopen Cursor for the MCP server to connect.

Step 4: Use It¶

In Cursor's AI chat, try:

"Use tenets to find the authentication code"

Cursor will call the Tenets MCP server and get ranked, relevant files.

What Tenets Provides to Cursor¶

Tools¶

Tool	What It Does
`distill`	Build optimized context for any task
`rank_files`	Preview file relevance scores
`examine`	Analyze codebase structure
`session_create`	Create persistent sessions
`session_pin_file`	Pin critical files
`tenet_add`	Add coding guidelines

Example Interactions¶

Find code:

"Use tenets to find the payment processing code"

Build context for a task:

"Use tenets distill to get context for implementing OAuth2"

Pin important files:

"Use tenets to pin src/auth/ to session auth-feature"

Add guidelines:

"Use tenets to add a tenet: Always validate user input"

Advanced Configuration¶

Full Path (Recommended)¶

If Cursor can't find tenets-mcp, use the absolute path:

Bash

# Find the path
which tenets-mcp

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tenets": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/tenets-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Multiple Projects¶

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tenets-frontend": {
      "command": "tenets-mcp",
      "args": ["--path", "/projects/frontend"]
    },
    "tenets-backend": {
      "command": "tenets-mcp",
      "args": ["--path", "/projects/backend"]
    }
  }
}

Debug Mode¶

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tenets": {
      "command": "tenets-mcp",
      "env": {
        "TENETS_LOG_LEVEL": "DEBUG"
      }
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting¶

"Command not found"¶

Use absolute path to tenets-mcp. Find it with which tenets-mcp.

"Tools not showing"¶

Restart Cursor completely (not just reload)
Check JSON syntax in config file
Verify config file location is correct

"Server timeout"¶

For large codebases, add exclusions to .tenets.yml:

YAML

scanner:
  exclude:
    - node_modules/
    - dist/
    - build/

Why Tenets?¶

Free & open source — MIT license, no cost
100% local — Your code never leaves your machine
NLP-powered — BM25, TF-IDF, import graph analysis
Fast — Analyzes thousands of files in seconds

Next Steps¶

Tenets is 100% free and open source.

MIT License · GitHub · PyPI