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Cursor

Run Cursor's chat on Conifer models, or add Conifer as tools the agent can call. Both take about a minute.

Run chat on Conifer models

Open Cursor Settings → Models and scroll to API Keys:

  1. Paste your Conifer key into the OpenAI API Key field.
  2. Turn on Override OpenAI Base URL and enter https://api.conifer.build/v1.
  3. Click Verify. The button turns green when the key and URL check out.
  4. Under the model list, choose Add model and type the id you want — claude-haiku-4-5, for example. The catalog lists every id your key can call.
  5. Select your model in the chat’s model picker. Turn off the built-in models you are not using so the picker stays short.

That is the whole setup. Chat and agent requests now bill to your Conifer account, one key across every tool you use.

Add Conifer as agent tools

This leaves Cursor’s models alone and gives the agent tools instead: call any Conifer model mid-task, compare a few on one prompt, check what a call cost. Create .cursor/mcp.json in the project (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for all projects):

.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "conifer": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/use-conifer/bin/conifer-mcp.mjs"],
      "env": { "CONIFER_API_KEY": "sk-conifer-…" }
    }
  }
}

Enable it under Cursor Settings → Tools & MCP, then ask the agent: “run this prompt through conifer_compare on claude-haiku-4-5 and gpt-oss-20b”. The server needs a one-time build first — The MCP server has that step and the full tool list.

Which one do you want?

Use the key override when you want Cursor’s chat to run on a Conifer model — one bill, one key, receipts on every turn. Use MCP when you want Cursor to keep its own models and also reach the catalog — a cheap model for bulk edits, a comparison before you commit a pipeline to one id. They stack; nothing stops you doing both.

The desktop app

The steps above are the desktop app. Cursor’s base-URL override lives in that same settings pane on macOS and Windows — there is nothing extra to install and no separate configuration to keep in sync.