Connecting with MCP clients - Cotality developer portal

Most MCP-compatible clients can connect to Cotality MCP with minimal configuration. You need:

The target environment’s MCP endpoint URL — See Quick start
A valid access token — See Authentication

Token configuration required — Cotality MCP does not currently support the OAuth-based MCP authentication server discovery flow. You must include your access token as an Authorization header in your client configuration, as shown in the examples below.

Client setup

VS Code
Claude Code
Cursor
Windsurf
Other

1. Create/edit a .vscode/mcp.json file in your project (or open your user-level settings.json).2. Add MCP server configuration:

{
  "servers": {
    "cotality-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.cotality.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <access_token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Avoid committing secrets - If your .vscode/mcp.json is checked into version control, use the input-prompt approach below instead. VS Code will prompt you to paste your token at runtime and store it in local memory.

{
  "servers": {
    "cotality-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.cotality.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:mcp-token}"
      }
    }
  },
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "mcp-token",
      "type": "promptString",
      "description": "Paste your access token here",
      "password": true
    }
  ]
}

3. Reload VS Code. The Cotality MCP tools will appear in your MCP tool list and be available to MCP-aware extensions such as GitHub Copilot.4. A quick test: ask Copilot to “list available Cotality MCP tools”. It should respond with the same tools you see in your MCP tool list.

Option A — CLI commandUse claude mcp add to register the server in one step:

claude mcp add cotality-mcp \
  https://mcp.cotality.com/mcp \
  --transport http \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <access_token>"

Add the -s user flag to make the server available globally across all projects.Option B — Manual configurationAdd the server to your project-level .mcp.json file (or ~/.claude.json for global access):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cotality-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.cotality.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <access_token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Verify the connection:

claude mcp list

You should see cotality-mcp listed. Then start a conversation and ask Claude to “list available Cotality MCP tools” to confirm the tools are loaded.

1. Create/edit a .cursor/mcp.json file in your project root (project-scoped), or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for global access across all projects.2. Add MCP server configuration to the file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cotality-mcp": {
      "url": "https://mcp.cotality.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <access_token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Cursor or reload the window. The Cotality MCP tools will be available in Cursor’s AI chat and composer.4. To verify, open Cursor’s chat and ask the agent to “list available Cotality MCP tools”.

1. Create/edit a ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json file.2. Add MCP server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cotality-mcp": {
      "serverUrl": "https://mcp.cotality.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <access_token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Windsurf or reload the window. The Cotality MCP tools will be available in Windsurf’s Cascade AI chat.4. To verify, open a Cascade conversation and ask “list available Cotality MCP tools”.

Any client that supports the Streamable HTTP MCP transport can connect to Cotality MCP. The general configuration pattern is:

Setting	Value
Transport	`Streamable HTTP`
URL	`https://mcp.cotality.com/mcp`
Headers	`Authorization: Bearer <access_token>`

Refer to your client’s documentation for the specific configuration format.

Troubleshooting

401 Unauthorized: Your token may have expired; generate a new one and update it in your client’s configuration.
Connection refused or timeout: Check the endpoint URL and ensure your network allows outbound HTTPS connections.
Client repeatedly prompts for credentials: If a token is missing, invalid, or expired, some clients (e.g., VS Code) may fall back to interactive OAuth-based authentication, which Cotality MCP does not currently support. Ensure you have a valid, unexpired token configured and that your client is set to use it.
Tools not appearing: After updating your configuration, fully restart or reload your client. Some clients cache the tool list and require a fresh connection.

​Client setup

​Troubleshooting

Client setup

Troubleshooting