/setup-mcp

description: Connect Claude Code and Cursor to the running Lanes app via SSE MCP at localhost:5353
allowed-tools: Bash

Set up the Lanes MCP server in every installed agent client. Run the section for each client detected; skip sections for clients that aren't installed. Both clients can coexist, and this command is idempotent.

1. Detect installed clients

• Claude Code: `command -v claude` (non-empty path means installed).
• Cursor: `test -d ~/.cursor || test -d /Applications/Cursor.app` (either is sufficient).

If neither is installed, stop and tell the user.

2. Claude Code

Skip if Claude Code wasn't detected.

1. **Check current state.** Run `claude mcp list` and look for any of three names, since the local server has shipped under all of them:

• `lanes-desktop` — the current name.
• `lanes-local` — the previous name. Still fully supported; leave it be.
• `lanes` whose URL is `http://localhost:5353/sse` — the original name. Still supported; leave it be.

Any of the three means the local server is already registered, so skip to step 3 and don't add a duplicate. Never rename an existing entry here — Settings → Integrations → Lanes MCP has a button for that, and it carries the user's tool permissions across. (A `lanes` entry pointing somewhere *else* is the separate remote Lanes Forms server; leave it alone.) 2. **If none are present**, register it:

   claude mcp add --transport sse lanes-desktop http://localhost:5353/sse --scope user

`--scope user` writes to `~/.claude.json` so it applies across all your projects. 3. **Verify registration** with `claude mcp list`. Confirm `lanes-desktop` (or whichever older name you already had) shows up with the SSE URL.

3. Cursor

Skip if Cursor wasn't detected. Cursor has no `cursor mcp add` CLI, so we edit `~/.cursor/mcp.json` directly (using `jq` to preserve any other `mcpServers` entries the user has).

1. **Check current state.** Run:

   jq -r '(.mcpServers["lanes-desktop"] // .mcpServers["lanes-local"] // .mcpServers.lanes).url // empty | select(contains("5353"))' ~/.cursor/mcp.json 2>/dev/null

Non-empty output means the local server is already registered, under the current name `lanes-desktop` or under an older `lanes-local` / `lanes` still pointing at `localhost:5353`. All three work — skip to step 3 and leave the entry exactly as it is. A bare `lanes` entry pointing elsewhere is the separate remote Lanes Forms server; leave it alone and still add `lanes-desktop` below. 2. **If none are present**, register it. Preferred (uses `jq`):

   mkdir -p ~/.cursor
   [ -f ~/.cursor/mcp.json ] || echo '{}' > ~/.cursor/mcp.json
   tmp=$(mktemp)
   jq '.mcpServers["lanes-desktop"] = {"url": "http://localhost:5353/sse"}' \
      ~/.cursor/mcp.json > "$tmp" && mv "$tmp" ~/.cursor/mcp.json

Fallback if `jq` isn't installed:

   python3 - <<'PY'
   import json, pathlib
   p = pathlib.Path.home() / '.cursor' / 'mcp.json'
   p.parent.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
   data = json.loads(p.read_text()) if p.exists() else {}
   servers = data.setdefault('mcpServers', {})
   # Only add when no name is registered — never rename what is already there.
   if not any(k in servers for k in ('lanes-desktop', 'lanes-local')):
       servers.setdefault('lanes-desktop', {'url': 'http://localhost:5353/sse'})
   p.write_text(json.dumps(data, indent=2) + '\n')
   PY

3. **Verify** by re-running the step 1 check. Non-empty output means the local server is registered under one of the supported names, whichever the user had.

4. Probe the endpoint

Run once, regardless of which clients were set up:

curl -sS -m 2 -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" http://localhost:5353/sse

• `200` → Lanes is up; the MCP is reachable.
• Connection refused / timeout → Lanes isn't running. Tell the user to launch the Lanes desktop app (`open -a Lanes` on macOS), then re-run this command.

5. Report

One short paragraph covering: per-client registration status (Claude Code, Cursor), whether the endpoint is live, and the restart hint. Claude Code needs a fresh terminal so the new MCP loads; Cursor needs the IDE (or `cursor-agent`) restarted.

Notes:

• New installs register the local server as `lanes-desktop`. It previously shipped as `lanes-local`, and before that as bare `lanes`; both keep working indefinitely.
• **This command never renames an existing entry, in any client.** A server's config name is the prefix on its tool names, so renaming it resets the user's approvals. That trade-off is theirs to make: Settings → Integrations → Lanes MCP has a per-client button that does the rename *and* carries the Claude Code tool grants across (Codex's are nested under the server entry and move with it anyway). Point the user there if they ask. Cursor has no such button — there, renaming means removing and re-adding by hand.
• Don't overwrite an existing MCP entry without asking. The user may have customised the URL, or may be deliberately referring to the server by an older name.
• The SSE endpoint is local-only (no auth, never leaves the machine). Don't expose `localhost:5353` over the network.
• If the user is on a non-default port (set in Settings → Integrations → Lanes MCP), they should pass that URL instead, in both clients.