Connect Red Hat Lightspeed (Insights) MCP with Cursor

Red Hat Lightspeed (formerly Red Hat Insights) delivers proactive analytics, helping teams improve reliability, streamline operations, and reduce manual analysis. At the heart of this capability is the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server now in Developer Preview, which acts as a bridge to connect Red Hat Lightspeed functionality to your favorite AI/LLM client.

If you're using Cursor as your AI-powered development environment, connecting it to the Red Hat Lightspeed MCP server unlocks the ability to interact with services like Advisor, Inventory, Vulnerability, and Image Builder using natural language.

To view our guidance for tooling other than Cursor, please visit Integrate Red Hat Lightspeed with Model Context Protocol

Prerequisites

Important Before getting started, it is assumed that you have already completed the necessary foundational setup detailed in the This content is not included.prerequisite document.

Specifically, you should have already:

• Set up your Service Account on console.redhat.com and secure your Client ID (INSIGHTS_CLIENT_ID) and Client Secret (INSIGHTS_CLIENT_SECRET).
• Assigned the required Roles and Permissions to your service account (e.g., RHEL Advisor viewer).
• Ensured you have a container runtime like Podman installed and running.

With the server dependencies and credentials ready, let's connect Cursor!

Connecting Red Hat Lightspeed MCP to Cursor

The Content from github.com is not included.Red Hat Lightspeed MCP server supports several methods for integration with Cursor, ranging from the easiest one-click setup to advanced HTTP streaming.

Option 1: One-click installation (easiest)

⚠️ Use Ctrl/Cmd-click to open in a new tab.
Otherwise the tab will close after installation and you won't see the documentation anymore.

Content from cursor.com is not included.ADD TO CURSOR

(Note: this uses the quay.io container image)

Option 2: Manual STDIO Installation

If the one-click method isn't suitable, you can manually configure Cursor to run the Red Hat Lightspeed MCP container using a standard input/output (STDIO) stream.

Note: Cursor does not support input prompts for credentials directly in this configuration as VSCode does. You must include your INSIGHTS_CLIENT_ID and INSIGHTS_CLIENT_SECRET directly in the configuration file.

1. Create a configuration file at ~/.cursor/mcp.json.
2. Populate the file with the following content, replacing the empty quotes "" with your actual client ID and secret:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "insights-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "podman",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--env", "INSIGHTS_CLIENT_ID",
        "--env", "INSIGHTS_CLIENT_SECRET",
        "--interactive",
        "--rm",
        "ghcr.io/redhatinsights/insights-mcp:latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "INSIGHTS_CLIENT_ID": "",
        "INSIGHTS_CLIENT_SECRET": ""
      }
    }
  }
}

Option 3: Manual Streamable HTTP Installation (Advanced)

For a more flexible deployment, you can run the Red Hat Lightspeed MCP server as a persistent HTTP service and configure Cursor to connect to it.

1. Start the MCP Server

Run the server container using Podman, exposing the HTTP endpoint on your local network:

podman run --net host --rm ghcr.io/redhatinsights/insights-mcp:latest http

• The --net host argument connects the container directly to the host's network, typically exposing the service on port 8000.

2. Integrate with Cursor

Configure your ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or similar location) to connect to the running HTTP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "insights-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "insights-client-id": "",
        "insights-client-secret": ""
      }
    }
  }
}

What's Next?

This release offers early access to powerful, MCP-driven workflows within Red Hat Lightspeed. We strongly encourage your feedback, including bug reports, requests for additional toolsets, and enhancement ideas, through the This content is not included.Red Hat Issue Router - select "MCP" and by contributing to our Content from github.com is not included.GitHub repository. Your input will directly refine and shape the future of Red Hat Lightspeed MCP.