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Add the Cognee MCP server to Windsurf

Config last verified Nov 10, 2026

The exact config to run Cognee in Windsurf — paste it in, restart, and the tools load.

Prerequisites

  • Windsurf installed.
  • LLM_API_KEY — API key for the LLM provider Cognee uses to extract the graph and answer queries (OpenAI by default).

Setup

1. Open ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

On Windows the file lives at %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf\mcp_config.json.

2. Add this configuration

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cognee": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "TRANSPORT_MODE=stdio",
        "-e",
        "LLM_API_KEY",
        "cognee/cognee-mcp:main"
      ],
      "env": {
        "LLM_API_KEY": "<LLM_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Windsurf and confirm the Cognee tools load.

Gotchas

Windsurf's Cascade reads MCP servers from an "mcpServers" object in ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. Unlike most clients, remote servers are configured with the "serverUrl" field rather than "url", so a config that uses "url" silently fails to connect. Native remote transport is supported without an OAuth flow.

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