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Connect HippoKit to Cursor (MCP)

Cursor was an early MCP adopter — every Cursor install includes a Settings → MCP pane for adding remote servers. This guide walks you through the connect flow, troubleshoots common issues, and answers the questions you'll have once HippoKit is live in Cursor.

CursorGACursor ships first-class MCP support on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Cursor was an early MCP adopter — every Cursor install includes a Settings → MCP pane for adding remote servers. While the obvious use case is coding tools, HippoKit slots in nicely for engineers who want to spin up flashcards on a new framework while they're learning it, or generate an audience-themed slide deck for a tech talk from inside the editor.

What you can do once connected

Once Cursor can call HippoKit, you can ask it to:

  • Generate a study kit from any topic — flashcards, quiz, ebook, audience-themed slide deck, or AI-narrated audio. Each format obeys your HippoKit plan's quotas and feature gating.
  • List or search your library — the host can look up kits you've already generated and pull them into the conversation by topic, audience, or recency.
  • Run a review session — call get_due_cards and review_card to walk through the flashcards your spaced-repetition queue has surfaced for today.
  • Run a quiz — call start_quiz on any kit you own and answer each question conversationally.
  • Claim an anonymous preview — if a teammate sent you a preview kit URL, HippoKit can claim it into your library straight from the chat.

Connect HippoKit in 5 steps

Total time: about two minutes. You only need to do this once per device.

  1. Generate a HippoKit personal access token (PAT)

    Open https://hippokit.ai/settings/mcp while signed in to HippoKit. Click "Create token", name it for the host you're connecting (e.g. "Claude Desktop on laptop"), and copy the token — you only see it once. The token inherits your plan's daily quota and format gating.

  2. Open Settings → MCP

    In the host you want to connect, navigate to Settings → MCP. This is where MCP servers (sometimes labelled "connectors", "extensions", or "tools") are managed.

  3. Add HippoKit as a new MCP server

    Add a new MCP server / connector using the URL https://mcp.hippokit.ai/mcp. When you save it, your host opens HippoKit in a browser to authorize the connection. That browser screen is where you'll paste your token in the next step.

  4. Approve the connection

    On the HippoKit authorization screen, paste the personal access token you created in step 1, then approve. Cursor shows the new server in the MCP list with a status dot. Click the dot to test the connection — green means HippoKit is reachable and the PAT is valid. Once green, Cursor's agent will call HippoKit tools whenever a prompt asks for study content.

  5. Test it

    Start a new conversation and ask the host: "Generate flashcards on photosynthesis using HippoKit". The host should call HippoKit's `generate_kit` tool, then return a shareable kit URL. If you see the kit, the connection is wired up correctly.

Quick reference

MCP server URL

https://mcp.hippokit.ai/mcp

Where PATs live

hippokit.ai/settings/mcp

Settings location

Settings → MCP

Smoke-test prompt

“Generate flashcards on photosynthesis using HippoKit”

60-second video walkthrough

A short screencast of the Cursor connect flow is coming soon. For now, the five steps above are everything you need.

Troubleshooting

If something isn't working, walk this list top to bottom — common issues are listed first.

The host says HippoKit is unreachable or returns a 401.

Your PAT may have been revoked or rotated. Open https://hippokit.ai/settings/mcp, revoke any stale tokens, generate a fresh one, and update the host's saved credential.

The host refuses to call HippoKit tools mid-conversation.

Most hosts ask the user to approve each tool the first time it runs. Look for an inline approval prompt in the conversation transcript — sometimes it lives below the input box rather than inline with the assistant turn.

You hit a daily quota error.

MCP usage counts against the same daily generation quota as the web app. Free is 3 generations / day; Plus is 25; Premium is 100. See /pricing for the current numbers, or upgrade from /settings.

A specific format (e.g. audio) is rejected with an "unavailable" message.

Format gating mirrors the web app. Audio requires Plus or higher; the full 5-format kit requires Plus. Upgrade from /pricing or call `generate_kit` with a subset of formats your tier supports.

The status dot stays red after Save.

A red dot means Cursor can't reach the server. Confirm you pasted https://mcp.hippokit.ai/mcp (with the https:// prefix), confirm the PAT is the value you copied at creation (not the truncated preview shown afterward), and check your network — corporate proxies sometimes block .ai TLD requests.

The Cursor agent refuses to call HippoKit even though the status dot is green.

Cursor's agent picks tools per request. If you're inside a code-mode prompt ("fix this bug"), it won't reach for study-content tools. Switch to chat mode or be explicit: "Use HippoKit to make a flashcard deck on the React hook I just used."

FAQ

Is HippoKit's MCP server free to use?

Yes — MCP usage is included in every HippoKit plan, including Free. There is no separate "API" tier. MCP calls count against the same daily generation quota you see in the web app, so a flashcard set generated through Claude Desktop costs you the same as one generated on hippokit.ai.

What can HippoKit do once connected?

The MCP server exposes nine tools: generate_kit, list_my_kits, get_kit, search_public_kits, claim_preview_kit, get_due_cards, review_card, start_quiz, and answer_quiz_question. Hosts can use these to generate new study content, list your existing library, look up specific kits, browse the public gallery, and run review sessions over your flashcard decks and quizzes.

Can I revoke access?

Yes — revoke any time from https://hippokit.ai/settings/mcp. Revocation is immediate; the host's next request gets a 401 and you can re-issue a fresh token whenever you want.

Does HippoKit see my host conversations?

No. The host only sends HippoKit the structured arguments for the tool calls it makes (e.g. "topic: photosynthesis, formats: flashcards"). The rest of your conversation stays inside the host. We never receive transcripts of your prompts to Claude / ChatGPT / Gemini / Cursor.

Does HippoKit see my codebase?

No. Cursor only sends HippoKit the structured arguments for the tool calls (topic, formats, audience). Your source files stay on your machine and inside Cursor's own LLM context. HippoKit never receives code.

Can I script HippoKit calls from a Cursor command?

Yes — once the MCP server is registered, Cursor exposes the tools to its agent. You can wrap a frequent call (e.g. "generate flashcards on the file I just opened") in a Cursor custom command. Anything Cursor's agent can do, the connector can do.

Connecting a different host?

HippoKit's MCP server works the same way across every host. Pick yours from the apex docs page.

All MCP hosts

Last reviewed . Found something out of date? Email hello@hippokit.ai and we'll fix it.