Connect HelpDocs to Cursor

Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets you connect Cursor to your HelpDocs account so it can read, search, and work with your Knowledge Base content directly from your editor. This guide shows you how to set up the connection with Cursor and what you can do with it.

MCP needs to be switched on for your account first. Head to Settings > AI, check Enable AI Tools, and select MCP Access. Our overview of HelpDocs MCP has the full walkthrough.

Connecting Cursor to HelpDocs MCP

Head to Customize in the Cursor sidebar
Open the MCP section and add a new MCP server
Name the server HelpDocs
Paste in the HelpDocs MCP URL below, then save the server


              https://••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Follow the authorization flow to give Cursor access to your Knowledge Base

If you have multiple Knowledge Bases with us, you'll need to select one to connect to.

Once authorization is complete, the HelpDocs tools show up as available in Cursor. Ask Cursor to use HelpDocs and it can pull your Knowledge Base in alongside your code 🙌

Adding HelpDocs with mcp.json

Prefer config files? Add HelpDocs to ~/.cursor/mcp.json to make it available in every project, or to .cursor/mcp.json in a project's root to limit it to that workspace.

{
            "mcpServers": {
              "helpdocs": {
                "url": "https://api.helpdocs.io/v1/mcp"
              }
            }
          }

Cursor will prompt you to authorize the connection the first time it uses the server.

Setting Up Tool Permissions

Cursor asks for your approval before it runs an MCP tool. Click the arrow next to the tool name to see exactly what it's about to send to HelpDocs, then allow or reject it.

You can let trusted tools run without asking through Cursor's Run Mode and allowlist settings. On a team plan, your admin may control which tools can run automatically.

We recommend keeping approval on for write actions (like creating or editing articles) when you're first getting started. This gives you a chance to check the article, category, and content before Cursor changes your Knowledge Base.

Actions Available to Cursor

Here's everything the connection can do, grouped by what you'd use it for. Read actions only look at your content. Write actions change it, so those are the ones worth keeping behind approval.

What you want to do	Actions	Read or write
Search and read your content	`search`, `fetch`, `list_articles`, `list_categories`, `get_category`	Read
See how your content is performing	`get_analytics`	Read
Check who has access to what	`list_permission_groups`	Read
Draft something new	`create_article`, `create_category`	Write
Edit content you already have	`update_article`, `update_category`	Write
Push edits live	`publish_working_copy`	Write
Remove content	`delete_article`, `delete_category`	Write
Recover something deleted	`list_deleted_articles`, `restore_article`	Read and write

Editing a published article doesn't change your live Knowledge Base straight away. Cursor stacks the edits up as a working copy, and your help center stays exactly as it is until the changes are published.

What You Can Ask Cursor to Do

Cursor can use your Knowledge Base alongside your codebase, which makes it handy for keeping docs in step with what you ship. A few examples:

Check whether our HelpDocs explain the new API endpoint in this project

Compare this code change with our existing HelpDocs and suggest which articles need updating

Create a draft HelpDocs article for this feature based on the implementation

Troubleshooting

If HelpDocs doesn't show as connected, open Cursor's Output panel (Cmd+Shift+U) and pick MCP Logs from the dropdown to see connection or authorization errors. You can also turn the server off and on again from Customize, then retry the authorization.