How to connect Cursor to LinkedIn, step by step

What you need

• A Finchreach account (sign in at finchreach.com) and the LinkedIn account you want Cursor to work on.
• Cursor.
• About five minutes.

Step 1: Create a Finchreach API key

1. Sign in at finchreach.com and open API keys.
2. Create a key and name it after the tool, for example “Cursor”.
3. Copy it right away: it starts with lk_ and is shown only once.

Step 2: Connect your LinkedIn account

1. Open Accounts and click to connect LinkedIn.
2. Follow the steps until the account shows as connected.

Approval mode is on by default: nothing the assistant drafts reaches LinkedIn until you approve it.

Step 3: Add Finchreach to Cursor

1. Open .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project (Settings → MCP links to it too).
2. Paste the entry below. It reads the key from the FINCHREACH_API_KEY environment variable through ${env:…}.
3. Set FINCHREACH_API_KEY=lk_YOUR_KEY in the environment Cursor starts from, then check Settings → MCP: finchreach should show its tools.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "finchreach": {
      "url": "https://mcp.finchreach.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:FINCHREACH_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Headers are supported, with ${env:NAME} interpolation, so the Finchreach key goes in Authorization: Bearer.

Step 4: Test the connection

In Cursor, start with a read. It runs right away and proves the key and the account work:

Ask your assistant“List my connected LinkedIn accounts, then summarize my five latest notifications.”

You should see calls to linkedin_list_accounts and linkedin_get_notifications. Then try a write, which goes to your approval queue instead of LinkedIn:

Ask your assistant“Draft a short LinkedIn post saying I’m trying a new AI assistant workflow. Submit it for my approval.”

Step 5: Approve or reject it in Finchreach

1. Open Approvals. The draft is there with its exact text and the account it would go out from.
2. Approve it to publish, or reject it (reject the test post if you don’t want it live).
3. Cursor can check the result with linkedin_get_action: pending, approved, rejected, executed, failed or expired.

Troubleshooting

• Remote servers don’t support envFile, so a .env file isn’t read: the variable must be in Cursor’s environment (start Cursor from a shell where it is set).
• Don’t commit a project mcp.json with a literal key in it. Use ${env:FINCHREACH_API_KEY}, or put the literal key only in the global ~/.cursor/mcp.json.
• 401 or “unauthorized”: the key is wrong, revoked or missing its prefix. Finchreach accepts Authorization: Bearer lk_… or X-API-Key: lk_…; check for a missing Bearer , quotes or a trailing space.
• A tool is missing: the key’s permissions don’t include it. Create a key with the permissions you need under API keys.
• “No LinkedIn account”: connect one under Accounts, or reconnect it if its session expired.
• A post or message “didn’t go out”: it is probably still waiting under Approvals. Writes run only after you approve them.

Still stuck? Compare your setup with Cursor’s documentation, checked on 2026-10-28; client screens change often.

What to ask Cursor next

Ask your assistant“Write a LinkedIn post about the refactor in this branch, aimed at other engineers.”

Ask your assistant“Search LinkedIn for people working on developer tools in Berlin and list them with their headlines.”

Ask your assistant“Draft replies to my unread LinkedIn messages; keep each under 60 words.”

More ideas on the Cursor integration page.

Common questions