How to set up Get on Board's MCP server with Cursor

When you source candidates from Cursor as a recruiter or company team, Get on Board’s MCP server connects your Cursor session to Talent Database so you can search Latin American tech professionals without leaving your editor.

You can also give this whole page to your agent and ask it to install the server for you. The agent can follow the setup steps and you complete the browser authorization when Get on Board opens the OAuth flow.

Cursor offers a one-click install from Cursor Directory and a manual path through Cursor settings. Use the one-click install first.

Before you start

You need:

• Cursor installed and signed in on your machine.
• A Get on Board recruiter account with access to an accepted company.
• The remote MCP server URL: https://www.getonbrd.com/mcp.

Install from Cursor Directory

Open the Get on Board listing in Cursor Directory:

cursor.directory/plugins/get-on-board-recruiter-mcp-server

Click Add to Cursor. Cursor opens an install dialog pre-filled with:

• Name:getonbrd-recruiter-mcp
• Type:streamableHttp
• URL:https://www.getonbrd.com/mcp

Click Install. The server appears under Installed MCP Servers with a yellow indicator and the label Needs authentication.

Authorize Get on Board

Click Connect on the getonbrd-recruiter-mcp row. Cursor opens the Get on Board authorization page in your browser. Then:

1. Sign in to Get on Board with your recruiter account.
2. Select the company context Cursor should use.
3. Click Authorize.

After authorization, the indicator turns green and the Get on Board tools are available in Cursor.

Verify the connection

In a Cursor chat, ask:

Use the Get on Board MCP server to call whoami and confirm my active company.

Cursor should return your Get on Board identity, the active company context, and the available MCP tools.

Then try a Talent Database search, for example:

Use Get on Board to find senior Python engineers in Mexico with English C1 who are available soon.

Optional: edit mcp.json directly

If you prefer to configure Cursor yourself instead of using Cursor Directory, open Cursor Settings → MCP → Add new MCP server, or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (project) and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "getonbrd-recruiter-mcp": {
      "url": "https://www.getonbrd.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Save, then open the MCP settings panel and click Connect on the new entry to start the browser authorization.

Do not add an API key, client ID, client secret, or custom transport field. Cursor and Get on Board complete Dynamic Client Registration and OAuth automatically in the browser.

What Cursor can do with this server

See the Get on Board MCP Server overview for the full tool reference and example workflows.

If you need to reconnect

In Cursor Settings → MCP, remove the getonbrd-recruiter-mcp entry, then either reinstall it from Cursor Directory or re-add it manually with the URL above and click Connect.

If Cursor does not show the Get on Board tools immediately after authorization, restart Cursor.

Troubleshooting

Why did the Get on Board tools disappear?

Get on Board’s MCP access tokens last 2 hours, and the server does not issue a refresh token. When your token expires, Cursor loses access to the Get on Board tools until you authorize again (the indicator turns yellow). Follow “If you need to reconnect” above — expect this to happen periodically during a long session, it is not a bug. If authorizing again does not bring the tools back, wait a few minutes before you retry — several attempts in a row can hit our rate limits.

Run whoami first

Whenever you are not sure the connection is working, ask Cursor to call whoami before anything else. It confirms your Get on Board identity, active company, granted scopes, and available tools, and it needs the least access of any tool to run. If whoami is the only tool Cursor lists, your current authorization only grants the baseline “Confirm your Get on Board identity” permission — see the Talent Database permission below.

Use the exact server URL

Enter https://www.getonbrd.com/mcp exactly, matching “Before you start” above. A typo in the domain or the path sends your client to a server that is not ours, and the connection fails before OAuth starts.

Candidate search needs the Talent Database permission

The Talent Database search tool appears only when your authorization granted the “Search professionals in Talent Database” permission. The authorization screen lists the permissions your client asked for — you cannot add one there. So if whoami does not list that permission, remove the Get on Board connection in Cursor and add it again, so it registers from scratch and asks for the permission.

Related articles

• What is the Get on Board MCP Server?
• How can I use Get on Board for agentic recruitment?
• How to set up Get on Board’s MCP server with Claude Code
• How to set up Get on Board’s MCP server with Codex
• How to set up Get on Board’s MCP server with ChatGPT
• What is Talent Database?
• Can I directly access the contact data in the Talent Database?
• What can I do with Get on Board’s API?