Runtype
Products & Surfaces

Setting up an MCP Surface

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) Surface connects your Runtype Capabilities to AI IDEs like Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code. Your Flows and Agents become tools that AI assistants can discover and invoke.

What is MCP?

MCP is a protocol that enables AI assistants to interact with external tools and services. When you create an MCP Surface, your Product's Capabilities become available as tools within AI development environments.

This enables scenarios like:

  • Claude Desktop calling your data retrieval Flow while helping with analysis

  • Cursor invoking your code generation Agent during development

  • VS Code using your custom tools through the Cline extension

Before you begin

Your Product should have at least one Capability (Flow or Agent) that you want to expose as an MCP tool. When creating a Surface from the launch panel, the first Capability is automatically added to the Surface.

Learn how to add Capabilities in Adding Capabilities to a Product.

Create an MCP Surface

  1. Open your Product

  2. Find the Surfaces section

  3. Click Add Surface

  4. Select MCP Server

  5. Configure the Surface:

    • Name: Descriptive name (e.g., "IDE Tools")

    • Status: Active

  6. Click Create

A "Connect to AI Assistants" setup wizard guides you through configuring which Capabilities appear as tools and connecting to Claude Desktop or Cursor.

Configure Tools

In the first setup step, choose which Capabilities to expose as MCP tools. Each Capability attached to your Product appears with an enable/disable toggle. You can use Enable All or Disable All to quickly configure all Capabilities at once.

You can change which tools are enabled later in the Surface's Endpoints tab.

Ship to Claude Desktop or Cursor

The Ship step provides connection instructions for three options: Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Other (any MCP-compatible client). All use the same JSON config format with an API key in the Authorization: Bearer header.

Claude Desktop

  1. Open Claude Desktop

  2. Go to Settings → Developer → Edit Config

  3. Add the provided config to mcpServers

  4. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with an API key (see Keys tab below)

  5. Restart Claude Desktop

Config file location:

  • macOS/Linux: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Cursor

  1. Open Cursor

  2. Go to Settings (Cmd/Ctrl + ,)

  3. Search for "MCP"

  4. Click Add new MCP server

  5. Paste the provided config

  6. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with an API key (see Keys tab below)

  7. Reload the window

See detailed connection guides: Connecting to Claude Desktop and Connecting to Cursor / VS Code.

Overview

The Overview tab displays your Surface's name, status, and key information. Verify your Surface is configured correctly before connecting to AI IDEs.

Endpoints

The Endpoints tab shows your MCP Endpoint URL and MCP Manifest URL for the Surface. AI clients use the single MCP endpoint and discover available tools via the MCP protocol.

You can also enable or disable individual Capabilities as MCP tools here—the same toggles from the Configure Tools step.

For programmatic integrations, the Advanced: Programmatic Integration section shows the MCP Server URL and MCP Manifest URL:

  • MCP Server URL: https://api.runtype.com/v1/products/{productId}/surfaces/{surfaceId}/mcp

  • MCP Manifest: https://api.runtype.com/v1/products/{productId}/surfaces/{surfaceId}/mcp/.well-known/mcp.json

Keys

MCP Surfaces use API keys for authentication. Create or reveal API keys in the Keys tab.

The Ship tab can auto-create a "Default MCP Key" for testing. You can also create additional keys in the Keys tab with custom names and scopes.

Create an API key

  1. Navigate to the Keys tab

  2. Click Generate API Key

  3. Configure the key:

    • Name: Descriptive name (e.g., "Claude Desktop - Production")

    • Key Type:

      • Test — Revealable, limited (50/day, 500 lifetime)

      • Production — Hash-only, unlimited

    • Rate Limit: Optional requests/minute limit

  4. Click Generate

  5. Copy and securely store the API key—it won't be shown again for Production keys

API keys grant access to invoke your Capabilities. Store them securely and never commit them to version control. Rotate keys immediately if they're exposed.

Test keys can be revealed later in the Keys tab. Production keys are hashed and cannot be recovered—if lost, generate a new key.

Ship

The Ship tab provides ready-to-use configuration for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Other MCP-compatible clients. The config includes your MCP endpoint URL and an API key placeholder.

The Ship tab can also auto-create a "Default MCP Key" (Test key) for quick setup. Replace YOUR_API_KEY in the config with this key or create a Production key in the Keys tab.

Verify Capability exposure

After connecting an AI IDE, verify your Capabilities appear as available tools:

  • Claude Desktop: Check the tools icon in the chat interface

  • Cursor: Tools appear in the MCP section of the chat panel

  • VS Code (Cline): View available tools in the Cline sidebar settings

Test by asking the AI assistant to use one of your Capabilities by name.

Make sure your Product status is set to Active for the MCP Surface to work.

Next steps

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