Atlassian/MCP/How To/Set up in Cursor

• How to set up the official Atlassian remote mcp server in CursorAI with mcp-remote

  • Atlassian Remote MCP Server Beta Now Available for Desktop Applications has some CursorAI instructions that don't appear in the help page Using the Atlassian Remote MCP Server beta

  • Initial authentication before installing in Cursor

    • mcp-remote prompts you to authenticate in your browser so you don't have to manage an API key
      

    • First, run npx -y mcp-remote https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/sse (or let your IDE plug-in run it). The proxy starts and immediately launches a browser-based OAuth flow.
    • Once the web browser opens, you need to select your org id, which will likely be something like <your-org>.atlassian.net in the case of Atlassian/Cloud.
      • A required dropdown labeled “Use app on *” appears first; it lists every Atlassian Cloud site you belong to (e.g., <your-org>.atlassian.net).
      • Select the site whose Jira/Confluence data you want the MCP server to reach. The token you’re about to issue is locked to that site; switching sites later means re-running the flow.
      • Below the dropdown the form groups requested scopes by product:
        • Jira – View / Update → jira-work
        • Confluence – View → comments, contents, pages, space details, confluence-user; Update → comments, pages; Search → confluence
        • User – View → me
      • Click Accept/Allow. The browser redirects to http://localhost:3334/oauth/callback; the CLI prints success and begins streaming. Your IDE can now read or write Jira issues and Confluence pages through the MCP server, subject to your normal product permissions.

  • Installing in Cursor

    • After you've run the above flow, add this to your Cursor mcp.json
      • json

        {
          "mcpServers": {
        
            // ... other mcp servers here
        
            "atlassian": {
              "command": "npx",
              "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/sse"
              ]
            }
          }
        }

      • You shouldn't need to enter an API key, because the oauth flow already happened above.

  • Testing it out

    • Go into Cursor's agent mode and ask it a question which should require using Atlassian. I did,

    • can you tell me which <PROJECT_ABBREVIATION> tickets are assigned to me in the current sprint?
      

    • The response was three tool calls, each of which I had to confirm with Cmd+Enter:
      • Called atlassianUserInfo
      • Called getAccessibleAtlassianResources
      • Called searchJiraIssuesUsingJql
    • The result I got back was correct.

  • See also

    • MCP Clients: Understanding the potential security risks - Work Life by Atlassian