cursor

Cursor

codescout works with Cursor Agent chat via the MCP protocol. Once registered, Cursor uses codescout's symbol and semantic tools for all code navigation instead of reading source files directly.

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One-Time Setup

Prerequisites: Cursor (latest), Rust toolchain.

Install codescout:

cargo install codescout

The binary lands at ~/.cargo/bin/codescout. Make sure ~/.cargo/bin is in your PATH.

Next, clone the codescout-companion repository — this provides the workflow skills, enforcement hook, and code-reviewer agent used in the steps below. The commands use path/to/copilot-codescout as a placeholder for wherever you cloned it.

Register codescout as an MCP server

Recommended: project-level registration — checked into git, shared with your team. Create .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codescout": {
      "command": "codescout",
      "args": ["start"]
    }
  }
}

Note: Cursor uses "mcpServers" (with s), unlike VS Code's "servers". If cargo is not in PATH, use the full path as the command value (e.g. ~/.cargo/bin/codescout).

Alternative: global registration — available in all projects. Open Cursor → Settings → Cursor Settings → MCP → Add new server → paste the same config block.

Once registered, codescout's system prompt injects automatically into every Agent session.

Add workflow skills

Cursor discovers rules in .cursor/rules/. Two options:

Option A — Convert each skill to .mdc format (recommended):

For each skill in path/to/copilot-codescout/Skills/, create a corresponding .cursor/rules/<name>.mdc file:

mkdir -p .cursor/rules

Each .mdc file follows this format:

---
description: [paste the description from skill frontmatter]
globs:
alwaysApply: false
---

[paste the full skill body here]

Set alwaysApply: false — Cursor auto-applies rules based on description matching, the same model-invoked behavior as Copilot Skills.