Cursor and VS Code

Both editors start stdio MCP servers from a JSON file, and stretto init prints the entry that runs your server behind stretto-proxy, in each editor's format:

Cursor

stretto init --host cursor --domain notes \
  -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /home/me/notes

VS Code

stretto init --host vscode --domain notes \
  -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /home/me/notes

The two formats differ in their top-level key, and VS Code's names the transport:

Cursor: mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notes": {
      "command": "stretto-proxy",
      "args": ["--record", "~/.stretto/logs/notes", "--domain", "notes",
               "--", "npx", "-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
               "/home/me/notes"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code: mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "notes": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "stretto-proxy",
      "args": ["--record", "~/.stretto/logs/notes", "--domain", "notes",
               "--", "npx", "-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
               "/home/me/notes"]
    }
  }
}

• Cursor reads ~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project, and .cursor/mcp.json in a project. Merge the entry into either. Cursor's MCP settings show each server's status.
• VS Code reads .vscode/mcp.json in a workspace, and your user mcp.json, which the command MCP: Open User Configuration opens. Merge the entry into either; the server's tools are then available to its agent mode. The command MCP: List Servers shows each server and can start, stop and restart it.

--write PATH writes the file instead, such as --write .vscode/mcp.json, and leaves an existing file alone unless you add --force, which replaces it with any other servers in it. After the entry, init lists the next steps, from learning a flow to serving it: the quick start follows them.

Serve a flow

Once you have learned and reviewed a flow, run init again with it, with --host cursor or --host vscode:

stretto init --host vscode --domain notes \
  --flow ~/.stretto/notes.flow.json \
  -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /home/me/notes

It prints the same entry, with the flow added to the proxy's arguments:

"args": ["--record", "~/.stretto/logs/notes", "--domain", "notes",
         "--flow", "/home/me/.stretto/notes.flow.json",
         "--flow-decider", "reach",
         "--", "npx", "-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
         "/home/me/notes"]

Replace the server's entry with the new one, and restart the server.

• Add --shadow to init to see what the flow would do before it acts (shadow mode).
• A flow learned with --habit-only has no arbiter, so init serves it with reach, which asks no model and needs no key (deciders).

Notes

• Checked-in configuration. A project's mcp.json is shared with everyone who opens the project. Keep --record under each person's home, as init does (~/.stretto/logs/NAME), not in the repository: logs hold whatever the tools read and return.
• Finding the program. If the editor cannot start stretto-proxy, give its full path as command, from which stretto-proxy.

Any MCP host has what applies to every host: paths, credentials and the three stages of a deployment.