# Opik's MCP server

> Configure Opik's MCP server with Cursor IDE to manage prompts and analyze traces efficiently.

Opik's [MCP server](https://github.com/comet-ml/opik-mcp) allows you to integrate
your IDE with Opik not just for prompt management, but also to access and
analyze traces.

## Setting up the MCP server

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Cursor">
    To integrate with Cursor IDE, open to the Cursor settings page and navigate
    to the Features tab. If you scroll down to the MCP section you will see the
    button `+ Add new MCP server` that will allow you to add the Opik MCP server.

    Once the New MCP server modal is open, select command as the server type and
    enter the command: `npx -y opik-mcp --apiKey YOUR_API_KEY`.

    <Frame>
      <img src="https://files.buildwithfern.com/https://opik.docs.buildwithfern.com/docs/opik/2026-01-30T17:33:07.444Z/img/prompt_engineering/cursor_add_mcp_server.png" />
    </Frame>

    Once the MCP server is available, you can now test it out by asking Cursor:
    `What is the latest trace available in Opik?`

    <Tip>
      If you are using a self-hosted version of Opik, you will need to specify
      the argument `apiBaseUrl` while removing the `--apiKey` argument:
      `npx -y opik-mcp --apiBaseUrl http://localhost:5173/api`
    </Tip>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Windsurf">
    To install the Opik MCP server, you will need to navigate to the Windsurf settings
    page and in the MCP servers section, click on the `Add server` button. Here
    you will need to click on the `Add custom server` button:

    <Frame>
      <img src="https://files.buildwithfern.com/https://opik.docs.buildwithfern.com/docs/opik/2026-01-30T17:33:07.444Z/img/prompt_engineering/windsurf_add_custom_server.png" />
    </Frame>

    Once the `mcp_config.json` file is created, you can configure the Opik server
    by adding the following (make sure to update the API key placeholder with your
    key):

    ```json wordWrap title="mcp_config.json"
    {
        "mcpServers": {
        "opik": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
            "-y",
            "opik-mcp",
            "--apiKey",
            "YOUR_API_KEY"
            ]
        }
        }
    }
    ```

    <Tip>
      If you are using a self-hosted version of Opik, you will need to specify
      the argument `apiBaseUrl` as `http://localhost:5173/api` while removing the
      `--apiKey` argument.
    </Tip>

    Once the MCP server is available, you not test it out by asking Windsurf:
    `What is the latest trace available in Opik ?`
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Manual">
    You can manually run the Opik MCP server by running:

    ```bash
    npx -y opik-mcp --transport sse --apiKey YOUR_API_KEY
    ```

    You can then access the Opik MCP server through the `sse` endpoint.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Using the MCP server

The Opik MCP server includes a number of different tools that include project
management, querying prompts and traces and fetching project metrics. We will
focus here on querying prompts and traces as this is the most common way of
using the Opik MCP server.

### Prompt management

You can access and save Opik prompts using the MCP server. You can do this by
asking questions such as:

> What prompts are available in the Opik prompt library ?

> What is the most recent version of the "demo" Opik prompt ?

> Save the following text as a new prompt in Opik called "example prompt"

### Managing traces

You can access traces stored in Opik from the MCP server, this is especially
useful if you want to analyze traces stored in Opik to determine how to
improve your agent or LLM chain.

To get started, you can ask questions such as:

> What was the output of the most recent traces in Opik ?

> How many traces have been logged to the "demo data" Opik project ?

You can also go one step further and use the traces logged to Opik to improve
your prompts. One technique that works well involves first fetching traces and
then asking the LLM to suggest an improvement based on these traces. While
While the exact method varies by MCP clients, the following
questions have worked well:

> Based on the 10 most recent traces stored in the "demo data" Opik project,
> suggest some improvements to the orchestrator prompt.

> Search for the most recent traces with high hallucination scores in the "demo
> data" Opik project and create a new prompt template.

### Example conversation

Below is an example conversation one of our users had in Cursor that allowed them
to improve their LLM Agent utilizing the Opik MCP server:

<Frame>
  <img src="https://files.buildwithfern.com/https://opik.docs.buildwithfern.com/docs/opik/2026-01-30T17:33:07.444Z/img/prompt_engineering/mcp_example.png" />
</Frame>