Cursor Setup Guide

July 16, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

This guide explains how to use @zereight/mcp-gitlab with Cursor.

Note: this guide is based on common community MCP configuration patterns for Cursor. The exact Cursor MCP wrapper schema and settings surface can vary by version or distribution, so treat the examples below as best-effort patterns rather than repository-verified official Cursor documentation.

Use a common Cursor MCP config file pattern such as:

  • .cursor/mcp.json

If your team shares the setup, keep the config in version control when appropriate.

Install the server once:

brew tap zereight/gitlab-mcp https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp
brew install zereight/gitlab-mcp/zereight-mcp-gitlab

Or with npm:

npm install -g @zereight/mcp-gitlab

If Cursor cannot find zereight-mcp-gitlab, use the absolute path from which zereight-mcp-gitlab.

PAT setup

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {
      "command": "zereight-mcp-gitlab",
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "glpat-your-token",
        "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://gitlab.com/api/v4",
        "GITLAB_READ_ONLY_MODE": "false"
      }
    }
  }
}

OAuth setup

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {
      "command": "zereight-mcp-gitlab",
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_USE_OAUTH": "true",
        "GITLAB_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
        "GITLAB_OAUTH_REDIRECT_URI": "http://127.0.0.1:8888/callback",
        "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://gitlab.com/api/v4"
      }
    }
  }
}

If your GitLab OAuth app is confidential, add GITLAB_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET.

Suggested first prompt

List my GitLab projects.

Common mistakes

1. API URL is missing /api/v4

Always use the API URL, not the web root.

2. OAuth redirect mismatch

The redirect URI in GitLab must exactly match your config.

3. PAT scope too small

Read-only flows usually need read_api. Write flows need api.

4. Global command is unavailable

If Cursor cannot spawn the process, verify npm's global bin directory is on the PATH Cursor uses, or set command to the absolute path from which zereight-mcp-gitlab.

Notes

Cursor MCP config commonly uses an mcpServers map for local stdio servers. If your Cursor version or plugin presents a settings UI instead of a raw file, use the same inner server fields:

  • command
  • args
  • env

See also