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title IDE Setup
description Configure your AI coding agent to use Cortex as an MCP server.
order 2
category guides
lastModified 2026-05-19

IDE setup

The fastest way to configure any agent is cortex install, which auto-detects installed agents and writes the correct config. Several agents also have dedicated subcommands for one-step setup.

In all manual examples, replace /path/to/cortex with the actual path to your cortex binary (which cortex on Unix, where cortex on Windows).

Quick install reference

Platform Command
Claude Code (Linux/Mac) cortex install
Claude Code (Windows) cortex install --platform claude-code
Codex cortex install --platform codex
OpenCode cortex install --platform opencode
GitHub Copilot CLI cortex install --platform copilot
VS Code Copilot Chat cortex vscode install
Aider cortex install --platform aider
OpenClaw cortex install --platform openclaw
Factory Droid cortex install --platform droid
Trae cortex install --platform trae
Trae CN cortex install --platform trae-cn
Gemini CLI cortex install --platform gemini
Hermes cortex install --platform hermes
Kimi Code cortex install --platform kimi
Kiro IDE/CLI cortex kiro install
Pi coding agent cortex install --platform pi
Cursor cortex cursor install
Google Antigravity cortex antigravity install

Cursor

Dedicated subcommand (creates .cursor/ if it does not exist):

cortex cursor install

Or manually, file: .cursor/mcp.json in your project root.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code CLI

One command (Linux/Mac):

cortex install

Windows or explicit:

cortex install --platform claude-code

Or use the Claude Code CLI directly:

claude mcp add cortex /path/to/cortex serve

Manual config file: ~/.claude/settings.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"],
      "env": {
        "CORTEX_REPO_ROOT": "/path/to/your/project"
      }
    }
  }
}

Kiro IDE/CLI

Dedicated subcommand:

cortex kiro install

Manual config file: .kiro/settings/mcp.json in your project root.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Google Antigravity

Dedicated subcommand (writes to ~/.antigravity/mcp.json):

cortex antigravity install

Or:

cortex install --platform antigravity

Codex CLI

cortex install --platform codex

Manual config file: ~/.codex/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

OpenCode

cortex install --platform opencode

Manual config file: ~/.opencode/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot CLI

cortex install --platform copilot

Manual config file: .github/copilot-mcp.json in your project root.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code Copilot Chat

Dedicated subcommand:

cortex vscode install

Or with --platform:

cortex install --platform vscode

Manual config file: .vscode/mcp.json in your project root.

{
  "servers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Note: VS Code uses servers as the root key, not mcpServers.

Aider

cortex install --platform aider

Creates .aider.mcp.json in your project root (or ~/.aider.mcp.json if no project config exists).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

OpenClaw

cortex install --platform openclaw

Manual config file: ~/.openclaw/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Factory Droid

cortex install --platform droid

Manual config file: ~/.droid/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Trae

cortex install --platform trae

Manual config file: ~/.trae/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Trae CN

cortex install --platform trae-cn

Manual config file: ~/.trae-cn/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI

cortex install --platform gemini

Manual config file: ~/.gemini/settings.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Hermes

cortex install --platform hermes

Manual config file: ~/.hermes/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Kimi Code

cortex install --platform kimi

Manual config file: ~/.kimi/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Pi coding agent

cortex install --platform pi

Manual config file: ~/.pi/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

cortex install --platform windsurf

Manual config file: .windsurf/mcp.json in your project root.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Zed

cortex install --platform zed

Manual config file: .zed/settings.json in your project root (or ~/.config/zed/settings.json for global config).

{
  "context_servers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Note: Zed uses context_servers as the key, not mcpServers.

Cline (VS Code extension)

cortex install --platform cline

Manual config file: .vscode/mcp.json in your project root.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

File: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "/path/to/cortex",
      "args": ["serve"],
      "env": {
        "CORTEX_REPO_ROOT": "/path/to/your/project"
      }
    }
  }
}

Other agents

Cortex also supports Continue.dev, JetBrains, Supermaven, Codeium, and Tabnine. Run cortex install to auto-configure all detected agents at once.

Environment variables

When running as an MCP server, Cortex determines the repository root from CORTEX_REPO_ROOT. If this is not set, it uses the current working directory. Most IDE integrations set the working directory to the project root automatically, so you usually do not need to set this.