Cursor IDE File Transfer, Powered by MCP

When Cursor's agent runs a build, executes a test suite, or generates a bundle analysis, the useful output is often a file — a zip, an HTML report, a screenshot from a Playwright run. Normally that artifact just sits in your working directory until you go find it manually. With a file transfer tool available, the agent can proactively hand it to you as a link the moment it's ready, including to a device other than the one Cursor is running on.

Cursor reads MCP server definitions from a .cursor/mcp.json file, either at the project root (scoped to that repository) or in your global Cursor configuration (available across all projects). Add an entry under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "srift": {
      "command": "srift",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Reload the Cursor window (or restart Cursor) so it picks up the new server. Srift's 14 tools — including srift_quick_share — become available to the agent immediately afterward.

Imagine asking Cursor's agent to fix a failing end-to-end test. It edits the code, reruns Playwright, and the run produces a trace file and a handful of failure screenshots. Instead of you digging through the test-results folder to find the right file, the agent can call srift_quick_shareon the trace archive the moment it finishes, and hand you a link right in the chat panel. If the fix didn't work, you can open the trace on a second monitor or a tablet without leaving your editor's focus.

The same pattern applies to build artifacts: after a production build finishes, the agent shares the output bundle directly rather than you needing to locate it inside dist/ or .next/ manually.

It's also useful for cross-device review: an agent working in Cursor on your desktop can share a generated design mockup or a mobile screenshot render, and you can pull it up on your phone to check how it actually looks on a real device, rather than only viewing it in a desktop preview pane.

You can prompt naturally: "run the test suite and share the coverage report with me" or "send me a link to the production build." The agent calls srift_quick_share with the relevant file path and returns a https://srift.app/d/<token> link — open it on your phone to check a screenshot, or on a different machine entirely, without emailing yourself a file or pushing to a branch just to move it around.

Project-scoped vs. global setup

If you only want this available for repositories that regularly produce shareable artifacts (build pipelines, data exports, generated docs), keep the config in that project's .cursor/mcp.json rather than your global settings.

Cursor caches its MCP tool list per session, so a plain reload of the editor window is usually enough — if that doesn't work, fully quitting and reopening Cursor forces it to re-read .cursor/mcp.json from scratch. If the sriftcommand isn't found, make sure it's installed globally (npm install -g srift-transfer) rather than only as a local project dependency, since Cursor spawns the MCP server as its own process outside your project's node_modules/.bin path resolution.

It's also worth checking that only one mcp.json is in play — a project-level file and a global one with conflicting entries for the same server name can cause Cursor to load the wrong configuration silently.

Finally, confirm the daemon itself is actually running by hitting http://127.0.0.1:3822/statusdirectly in a browser — if that doesn't respond, the problem is the sriftprocess failing to start rather than Cursor's MCP client configuration.