Bring Employee Management
to Cursor
Learn how to connect BrightHR to Cursor and start using 12 AI agent tools in minutes. Fully managed, enterprise secure, and ready to use without writing a single line of code.
What is the BrightHR MCP Server?
Connect your BrightHR account to any AI agent and take full control of your workforce management and employee lifecycle through natural conversation.
What you can do
- Employee Orchestration — List and manage all employee profiles programmatically, including job roles, departments, and high-fidelity compensation metadata
- Absence & Leave Intelligence — Monitor sickness, lateness, and planned holiday requests in real-time to maintain a perfectly coordinated team schedule
- Benefits & Training Monitoring — Access complete directories of employee benefits and retrieve training history to oversee organizational development
- Operational Visibility — Access high-fidelity metadata for your organization and monitor active webhooks directly through your agent for instant reporting
- Connectivity Verification — Verify API health and check connectivity status programmatically to ensure a perfectly coordinated integration ecosystem
How it works
1. Subscribe to this server
2. Retrieve your Access Token from your BrightHR dashboard (Settings > API or Developer Portal)
3. Start managing your human resources from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client
No more manual toggling between HR dashboards or digging through complex holiday tables. Your AI acts as your dedicated HR administrator and team coordinator.
Who is this for?
- HR Managers — instantly retrieve employee summaries and log absences using natural language commands
- Team Leaders — monitor holiday schedules and verify team availability without leaving your workspace
- Business Owners — automate the oversight of organizational structure and compensation through simple AI queries
Built-in capabilities (12)
Verify BrightHR API status
Get details for a specific employee
Get job metadata
Get salary information
Get company details
Can be filtered by employee ID. List employee absences
List active webhooks
List benefits for an employee
List all employees
Can be filtered by employee ID. List holiday/leave requests
List training history
g., sickness) for an employee. Log a new employee absence
Why Cursor?
Cursor's Agent mode turns BrightHR into an in-editor superpower. Ask Cursor to generate code using live data from BrightHR and it fetches, processes, and writes. all in a single agentic loop. 12 tools appear alongside file editing and terminal access, creating a unified development environment grounded in real-time information.
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Agent mode turns Cursor into an autonomous coding assistant that can read files, run commands, and call MCP tools without switching context
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Cursor's Composer feature can generate entire files using real-time data fetched through MCP. no copy-pasting from external dashboards
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MCP tools appear alongside built-in tools like file reading and terminal access, creating a unified agentic environment
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VS Code extension compatibility means your existing workflow, keybindings, and extensions all work alongside MCP tools
BrightHR in Cursor
BrightHR and 3,400+ other MCP servers. One platform. One governance layer.
Teams that connect BrightHR to Cursor through Vinkius don't need to source, host, or maintain individual MCP servers. Every tool call runs inside a hardened runtime with credential isolation, DLP, and a signed audit chain.
Raw MCP | Vinkius | |
|---|---|---|
| Server catalog | Find and host yourself | 3,400+ managed |
| Infrastructure | Self-hosted | Sandboxed V8 isolates |
| Credential handling | Plaintext in config | Vault + runtime injection |
| Data loss prevention | None | Configurable DLP policies |
| Kill switch | None | Global instant shutdown |
| Financial circuit breakers | None | Per-server limits + alerts |
| Audit trail | None | Ed25519 signed logs |
| SIEM log streaming | None | Splunk, Datadog, Webhook |
| Honeytokens | None | Canary alerts on leak |
| Custom domains | Not applicable | DNS challenge verified |
| GDPR compliance | Manual effort | Automated purge + export |
Why teams choose Vinkius for BrightHR in Cursor
The BrightHR MCP Server runs on Vinkius-managed infrastructure inside AWS — a purpose-built runtime with per-request V8 isolates, Ed25519 signed audit chains, and sub-40ms cold starts. All 12 tools execute in hardened sandboxes optimized for native MCP execution.
Your AI agents in Cursor only access the data you authorize, with DLP that blocks sensitive information from ever reaching the model, kill switch for instant shutdown, and up to 60% token savings. Enterprise-grade infrastructure, zero maintenance.
* Every MCP server runs on Vinkius-managed infrastructure inside AWS - a purpose-built runtime with per-request V8 isolates, Ed25519 signed audit chains, and sub-40ms cold starts optimized for native MCP execution. See our infrastructure
How Vinkius secures
BrightHR for Cursor
Every tool call from Cursor to the BrightHR MCP Server is protected by DLP redaction, cryptographic audit chains, V8 sandbox isolation, kill switch, and financial circuit breakers.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find my BrightHR Access Token?
Log in to your account, navigate to Settings > API, or visit the BrightHR Developer Portal to generate a Personal Access Token.
Can I record a sickness absence via AI?
Yes! The record_absence tool allows you to log an absence by providing the employee ID, reason, and start date programmatically.
How do I check upcoming holidays?
Use the list_holiday_requests tool to retrieve all planned leave, with the option to filter by specific employee IDs.
What is Agent mode and why does it matter for MCP?
Agent mode is Cursor's autonomous execution mode where the AI can perform multi-step tasks: reading files, editing code, running terminal commands, and calling MCP tools. Without Agent mode, Cursor operates in a simpler ask-and-answer mode that doesn't support tool calling. Always ensure you're in Agent mode when working with MCP servers.
Where does Cursor store MCP configuration?
Cursor looks for MCP server configurations in a mcp.json file. You can configure servers at the project level (.cursor/mcp.json in your project root) or globally (~/.cursor/mcp.json). Project-level configs take precedence.
Can Cursor use MCP tools in inline edits?
No. MCP tools are only available in Agent mode through the chat panel. Inline completions and Tab suggestions do not trigger MCP tool calls. This is by design. tool calls require user visibility and approval.
How do I verify MCP tools are loaded?
Open Settings → Features → MCP and look for your server name. A green indicator means the server is connected. You can also check Agent mode's available tools by clicking the tools dropdown in the chat panel.
Tools not appearing in Cursor
Ensure you are in Agent mode (not Ask mode). MCP tools only work in Agent mode.
Server shows as disconnected
Check Settings → Features → MCP and verify the server status. Try clicking the refresh button.