Connect Cursor to your backlog

Why Cursor needs your backlog

Cursor already sees your repository. What it cannot see is why the code is the way it is: the acceptance criteria the story was scoped against, the architecture decision that rules out the obvious refactor, the test cases that already cover the edge case, the sibling stories in the same sprint. Stride hands the agent that structured context over MCP, so it implements the feature you actually specified rather than a plausible reading of the diff.

How to connect it

Sign in with your Stride account and there is nothing to copy. For CI and other runs that cannot open a browser, use an agent key instead.

Sign in with your Stride account

1. Click Add to Cursor: Cursor opens and asks you to confirm the install. Or paste the config below into ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (this repo only).
2. Open Customize → MCPs in Cursor, where Stride shows that it needs to sign in, and follow its prompt. Your browser opens to Stride.
3. Sign in, choose the project Cursor works in and the projects it can reach, and click Allow. You can disconnect it at any time in Settings → Integrations → Connected apps.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stride": {
      "url": "https://www.stride.page/api/mcp/stride"
    }
  }
}

Or install the Stride plugin: /stride-next and /stride-done

The plugin adds the same server and two skills. /stride-next picks up your next story (the one a teammate staged for you, or the top one assigned to you) with its full spec and starts it. /stride-done checks the work against the story’s acceptance criteria and moves it to In Review. Copy the cursor folder of the Stride plugins repository to ~/.cursor/plugins/local/stride and run Developer: Reload Window.

Or use an agent key

1. In Stride, open Settings → Integrations → Cursor and generate a scoped agent key.
2. On the same screen, click Add to Cursor: Cursor opens and asks you to confirm the install. Or paste the config below into ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (this repo only).
3. Export the key in the shell that launches Cursor, then restart it. Stride then appears under Customize → MCPs.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stride": {
      "url": "https://www.stride.page/api/mcp/stride",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:STRIDE_AGENT_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

One detail is worth reading twice, because it fails silently: Cursor interpolates environment variables as ${env:NAME}, not the bare ${NAME} form Claude Code uses. Adapt a Claude Code config by hand and Cursor will send the literal characters as your Authorization header, and Stride rejects every call. Copy the config from the connect flow and this cannot happen.

What the agent can do

Stride exposes 131 RBAC-gated tools across all four modules — the same set Claude Code and Codex get. Every call is permission-checked by the dispatcher before it runs, and every write lands in the audit log as via: "mcp".

You can always tell it was the agent

Every agent key gets its own identity. Work Cursor does shows up as Cursor agent — <project>, carrying the Cursor mark as its avatar, wherever an author appears: comments, the activity feed, notifications, and the Reporter field on stories it creates. Run history for each key lives in Settings, down to the individual tool call. Nothing an agent does is filed under a teammate’s name.

Good to know

• Share it with the team safely. Cursor suggests committing .cursor/mcp.json so teammates get the same tools. Signed in, the file holds only the endpoint and each person signs in for themselves; with a key, the config refers to ${env:STRIDE_AGENT_KEY}, so the file holds no key and each person uses their own.
• 131 tools are fine. Cursor’s agents load MCP tools only when they need them, and you can switch off any tool from the tools list at the top of the chat panel.
• The Cursor CLI uses the same config. Run agent mcp list-tools stride to see what it loaded.
• Cloud agents are set up separately. Agents you start from cursor.com/agents do not read your mcp.json: add Stride from the MCP menu there. They keep a sign-in of their own, separate from the desktop app’s; with a key, Cursor stores the Authorization header encrypted and never shows it again.

Checked against Cursor’s documentation on October 24, 2026.

Frequently asked questions