Cursor MCP launches Gortex from home directory, causing entry-point handshake failure

[aramonc]

Problem definition

When Cursor uses the Gortex MCP integration, the process can start with current working directory set to the user home (~/) instead of the opened project root. This causes Gortex MCP startup to fail at the strict entry-point handshake.

Observed logs (from Cursor MCP):

2026-05-07 17:10:06.303 [info] [V2 FSM] connection:connect_start: conn=idle,auth=unknown -> conn=connecting,auth=unknown
2026-05-07 17:10:06.303 [error] [gortex] MCP handshake failed: not a Gortex entry point: /Users/adrian is neither a workspace root (containing .gortex/workspace.toml) nor a project root (containing .gortex/). There is no walk-up. Run `gortex init` here to bind this directory as a single-project root, or create .gortex/workspace.toml to bind it as a workspace root
Error: not a Gortex entry point: /Users/adrian is neither a workspace root (containing .gortex/workspace.toml) nor a project root (containing .gortex/). There is no walk-up. Run `gortex init` here to bind this directory as a single-project root, or create .gortex/workspace.toml to bind it as a workspace root
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Probable root cause

• gortex install currently writes a global Cursor MCP config at ~/.cursor/mcp.json.
• The default MCP entry uses gortex mcp --index . --watch.
• When Cursor starts this global entry without project-scoped cwd, . resolves to ~/.
• Proxy/handshake code currently derives session cwd from os.Getwd(), so daemon routing also inherits this wrong cwd.
• Gortex correctly rejects startup because ~/ is not a valid Gortex entry point.

Suggested implementations

1. Prefer project-local MCP for Cursor

   • Do not write ~/.cursor/mcp.json by default (or for Cursor specifically).
   • Keep .cursor/mcp.json as the primary integration path via gortex init.

2. Make global Cursor MCP daemon-only if retained

   • For global installs, use gortex mcp --proxy (or equivalent daemon-only mode) instead of --index ..
   • Avoid any cwd-relative index target in global config.

3. Harden cwd detection in proxy handshake

   • Prefer editor-provided workspace env vars (e.g. CURSOR_WORKSPACE) over os.Getwd() when available.
   • Fallback to os.Getwd() only when no workspace signal exists.

4. Improve install UX/docs

   • Document that global Cursor MCP with --index . can bind to home cwd and fail strict handshake.
   • Recommend daemon + per-project MCP as default multi-repo setup.

Expected behavior

• Opening a project in Cursor should not fail MCP startup due to home-directory cwd.
• Gortex MCP should consistently resolve repo context from the active project workspace, or proxy through daemon without cwd-relative indexing.