Add You.com to Cursor

The official You.com plugin for Cursor installs four skills and the You.com MCP servers from the agent-skills repo. The MCP servers give the agent tools such as you-search, you-contents, you-research, and you-finance. The skills tell it when to use each one and how to cite what it finds.

Install the Docs MCP server

The Docs MCP server lets your agent search over the entirety of these docs. Free to use.

Install https://you.com/docs/_mcp/server. See the Docs MCP Server guide to learn more.

Install the Plugin

Add the Plugin From the Cursor Marketplace

Open the You.com listing in the Cursor Marketplace and install it, or run this command in an agent session:

/add-plugin you

To install from source instead, open Customize in the Cursor sidebar, choose From GitHub Repository, and enter:

https://github.com/youdotcom-oss/agent-skills

Cursor reads the repo’s .cursor-plugin/marketplace.json and lists the you plugin. Install it and pick a scope.

To register the GitHub marketplace from the Cursor CLI:

agent plugin marketplace add https://github.com/youdotcom-oss/agent-skills

The CLI registers the marketplace but has no non-interactive install command yet, so install you from /plugin inside an agent session.

Try It

Use you-web to find the Next.js 15 breaking changes, with sources.

Turn off Cursor’s built-in web search in Settings → Agents so the agent calls You.com instead of running both searches on the same query.

Included Skills

Skill	Use it for
`you-web`	Current web search and URL reading, with sources cited. Switches to keyless `you-search` when no credentials are set.
`you-research`	Choosing between agent-led searching and a single cited `you-research` call
`you-finance`	Finance questions through the `you-finance` tool
`you-discover`	Finding the right You.com API, MCP server, or SDK for a project you’re building

Use the MCP Server Without the Plugin

To add only the tools, without the skills, configure the MCP server directly.

One-Click Install

Clicking the button opens Cursor and pre-fills the configuration. Cursor will trigger OAuth automatically—sign in to You.com in the browser window that opens, and the integration is live.

Manual Setup

If you’d rather configure by hand, open Cursor settings → MCP → Add new server, and paste:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you-com": {
      "url": "https://api.you.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Cursor gotcha: don’t include a "type": "http" field. Cursor’s MCP config format omits it.

Use an API Key

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you-com": {
      "url": "https://api.you.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YDC_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Use the Free Tier

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you-com": {
      "url": "https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free"
    }
  }
}

Turn Off Cursor’s Built-In Web Search

Go to Settings → Agents and turn off the built-in web search tool. This avoids the agent picking Cursor’s lower-quality search when You.com is available, and prevents duplicate tool calls on the same query.

Quick Demo

Open the agent panel and try:

Find the official Next.js 15 migration guide and pull the breaking-changes section verbatim.

Research which AI search APIs offer OAuth 2.1, with citations.

Troubleshooting

Server not appearing

Restart Cursor after editing the MCP config. The reload-on-save behavior is unreliable in current builds.

OAuth window doesn't open

Check that you don’t have a popup blocker active for cursor:// deeplinks.

Tools show but never get called

Confirm Cursor’s built-in web search is disabled. The agent may be preferring the cheaper local tool.

type field error

Remove the type field. Cursor doesn’t use it.

Resources

MCP Server Reference

Endpoint, authentication, and full tool reference.

Python SDK

Call the Web Search, Answer, Contents, Research, and Finance Research APIs from Python.

Integrations

LangChain, crewAI, n8n, Zapier, and other third-party frameworks.