MCP Server

Cortex implements a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, enabling any MCP-compatible client (editors, IDEs, other AI applications) to use Cortex as their agentic backend.

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     MCP Server                             │
│                                                           │
│  MCP Client (IDE/Editor)                                   │
│         │                                                  │
│         ▼ stdio (JSON-RPC)                                 │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐        │
│  │           MCP Server (mcp/server.ts)          │        │
│  │                                               │        │
│  │  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐      │        │
│  │  │  Tools  │  │ Memory  │  │ Sessions│      │        │
│  │  └─────────┘  └─────────┘  └─────────┘      │        │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Transport

The MCP server uses stdio transport — standard input/output for process-level integration. This is the most common MCP transport pattern and enables direct embedding in editors and IDEs that support MCP.

Exposed Capabilities

Via MCP, clients can access:

Capability	MCP Mapping
Tools	MCP tools — file I/O, shell execution, web search, code execution
Memory	MCP resources — search, retrieve, and inject memory entries
Agents	MCP prompts — agent-specific system prompts and templates
Sessions	MCP sampling — create and resume chat sessions

Protocol

The MCP server implements the standard Model Context Protocol with:

JSON-RPC 2.0 message format
Initialize/Capability negotiation
Tool listing and execution
Resource listing and reading
Prompt listing and retrieval

Integration Examples

VS Code / Cursor

Configure your MCP settings to launch Cortex:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "cortex",
      "args": ["mcp", "stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add Cortex as an MCP server in Claude Desktop settings to use Cortex tools directly from Claude conversations.