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Get started with Cursor and TiDB MCP Server

This guide shows you how to configure the TiDB MCP Server in the Cursor editor.

For one-click installation, you can click the following button:

Install TiDB MCP Server

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

  • Cursor Editor: Download and install Cursor from cursor.com.
  • Python (>=3.10) and uv: Ensure Python (version 3.10 or later) and uv are installed. Follow the installation guide to install uv.
  • A TiDB cluster: For a managed option, create a TiDB Cloud Starter cluster at tidbcloud.com.

Use the TiDB Cloud console to create a Cursor configuration with your cluster credentials.

  1. Go to the Clusters page, select your cluster, and then click Use with AI Tools in the upper-right corner.
  2. In the Access your_cluster_name with AI tools dialog, select the Branch and Database that Cursor should access.
  3. Review the Prerequisites list in the dialog and install any missing dependencies.

  4. Configure the root password:

  5. If you have not set a password yet, click Generate Password and store it in a secure location (it is shown only once).

  6. If a password already exists, enter it in the Enter the password for easy setup field.

  7. If you forget the password, click Reset password in the Prerequisites section to generate a new one.

  8. Select the Cursor tab, click Add to Cursor, and then click Install in Cursor.

Manual configuration (any TiDB cluster)

If you prefer manual setup, add the following configuration to your .cursor/mcp.json file and replace the placeholders with your connection parameters:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "TiDB": {
      "command": "uvx --from pytidb[mcp] tidb-mcp-server",
      "env": {
        "TIDB_HOST": "<YOUR_TIDB_HOST>",
        "TIDB_PORT": "<YOUR_TIDB_PORT>",
        "TIDB_USERNAME": "<YOUR_TIDB_USERNAME>",
        "TIDB_PASSWORD": "<YOUR_TIDB_PASSWORD>",
        "TIDB_DATABASE": "<YOUR_TIDB_DATABASE>"
      }
    }
  }
}

For more details, see the Model Context Protocol documentation.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues installing the TiDB MCP Server, check the MCP logs in the Cursor editor.

  1. Click View > Output in the main menu at the top of the editor.
  2. Select MCP from the dropdown menu in the Output panel.
  3. If you see errors like [error] Could not start MCP server tidb-mcp-server: Error: spawn uvx ENOENT, it means the uvx command may not exist in your $PATH system variable. For macOS users, you can install uvx by running brew install uv.