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Connecting Workable to Cursor

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Connect Workable to Cursor to find recruiting and HR information and take actions in your Workable account through conversation. The Workable Model Context Protocol (MCP) server provides tools for jobs, candidates, employees, requisitions, offers, time off and more.

This guide covers the Cursor desktop app using Workable’s remote MCP server.

 

Before you start

  • An active Workable account and a user with access to the information and actions you want to use.
  • An up-to-date Cursor installation with MCP support.
  • Permission to configure MCP servers. Your organization’s MCP policy must allow Workable.
  • A browser for the Workable authorization step.

The MCP server is available on all Workable subscription tiers. HR tools require the corresponding Workable products to be enabled on your account.

The assistant’s access depends on the signed-in user’s Workable permissions. It can only access information and perform actions available to that user in Workable.

 

Setting up the connection

  1. Open Cursor and your working project.
  2. Create or open .cursor/mcp.json in the project. For access across projects, use ~/.cursor/mcp.json in your home directory instead.
  3. Add the Workable server configuration below. If the file already contains servers, add workable inside the existing mcpServers object, preserving the other entries.
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "workable": {
      "url": "https://mcp.workable.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
  1. Save the file. Open Cursor’s Customize page and enable the Workable MCP server.
  2. Use the server’s connect or authentication prompt to open Workable sign-in in your browser. Review permissions and authorize the connection.
  3. Return to Cursor and check that Workable’s tools are available to the Agent.

Workable uses OAuth authentication. Sign in through the Workable authorization window; no separate API key is required. Workable supports automatic OAuth discovery and dynamic client registration.

Use the HTTPS URL exactly as shown. Workable uses Streamable HTTP; no local server process or SSE endpoint is needed.

 

Testing the connection

Start a new conversation with Workable enabled and send:

Use Workable to list the accounts I can access. Call get_accounts first, then use my chosen account’s subdomain as the account argument on subsequent calls. Show the open jobs in that account.

If you have access to multiple Workable accounts, specify which one to use. Check the tool activity for get_accounts, followed by get_jobs, and compare the results with Workable.

Once connected, you can also try:

  • “Which candidates applied for the Senior Backend Engineer role this week, and where are they in the pipeline?”
  • “Show me the requisitions waiting on my approval.”
  • “Who is out of office in the Berlin office next month?”

Results depend on your permissions, enabled products and available tools. Review the record and requested change before approving an action that updates Workable.

 

Troubleshooting the connection

Workable does not appear in Cursor

Check the file location and JSON syntax, including commas and braces. Enable the server in Customize. Check whether a project configuration and a global configuration both define Workable; keep one intended connection.

My organization blocks the server

Ask your Cursor administrator to check the MCP allowlist and permitted tools for the Workable server URL.

Cursor does not call a Workable tool

Use the Agent and ask explicitly to use Workable. Check available tools and any approval request. Expand the tool call to review its arguments and result.

The expected account or information is missing

Ask the assistant to call get_accounts again and select the correct account subdomain. Check that the signed-in Workable user can see the same information directly in Workable and that the required product is enabled.

The connection fails or a Workable tool returns an error
  • 401 Unauthorized: Reconnect and sign in to Workable again.
  • 403 Forbidden: Check your Workable permissions and enabled products.
  • 404 Not found: Check the account subdomain and record.
  • 409 Conflict: Check the record’s current state before retrying.
  • 422 Unprocessable: Check the supplied values against the options in Workable.
  • 429 Rate limited: Wait briefly before trying again.

If an OAuth redirect URI mismatch appears, contact Workable Support with the error and redirect URI. Do not include passwords or access tokens.

 

For the full list of supported tasks, see Using the Workable MCP server to connect to AI assistant.

For platform details, see Cursor’s MCP documentation.

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