MCP Night 2.0 Demo Recap: How Cursor Users Are Embracing the Model Context Protocol

This post is part of our ongoing MCP Night 2.0 series, highlighting the impressive demonstrations from the event. Check out our full event recap and other demo spotlights to see how the Model Context Protocol ecosystem is evolving.

When Eric Zakariasson from Cursor took the stage at MCP Night 2.0, he didn't just show off features - he revealed compelling data about how developers are actually using the Model Context Protocol in production.

As someone working on developer experience at Cursor, Eric had unique insights into real-world MCP adoption patterns that paint an encouraging picture for the protocol's future.

The Journey from Specification to Adoption

Eric walked the audience through Cursor's MCP timeline, which started in November 2024 when Anthropic first released the specification. What's particularly interesting is his admission that the Cursor team initially felt "late to the game" when they implemented their first MCP version a couple months later. Looking back now, they were actually quite early adopters.

The real turning point came in June with the addition of one-click install and OAuth support. This seemingly simple improvement had a dramatic impact on adoption rates, demonstrating a fundamental truth about developer tools: friction is the enemy of adoption.

Usage Data That Tells a Story

The numbers Eric shared tell a compelling story about MCP's growth trajectory. While he couldn't share exact figures, the trend lines showed clear upward momentum, with a notable inflection point corresponding to the one-click install feature launch.

Perhaps more importantly, the weekly user numbers showed consistent, stable growth - a sign of genuine utility rather than just initial curiosity. As Eric noted, this kind of sustained adoption is crucial for motivating continued investment in making Cursor an excellent MCP client.

What Developers Are Actually Building With

The most popular MCP servers in the Cursor ecosystem reveal interesting patterns about developer workflows:

Context.7 leads the pack as a documentation fetching tool, with the added benefit of versioned documentation support. This highlights how developers want context-aware assistance that understands not just what they're building, but which version of frameworks and libraries they're using.

Supabase ranks highly for PostgreSQL database management, with Eric noting its particular value for pulling sample data into context when generating dashboards, migration scripts, or data processing code. This real-world data helps catch edge cases that might otherwise be missed.

Playwright has become the de facto browser automation MCP server, primarily used in web development to gather context that Cursor can't naturally see - like rendered page states or dynamic content.

Figma's recently released MCP server allows developers to pull designs directly into their coding context, enabling what Eric described as "one-shot" implementation from mockups.

GitHub integration rounds out the top five, providing project management context through issues, repositories, and project data.

The Surprise Hit: LinkedIn Integration

One of the most entertaining moments came when Eric revealed an unexpected finding in their usage data: significant adoption of a LinkedIn MCP server. After investigating, he discovered the existing server was limited to reading LinkedIn data, which led him to an obvious question: "I need to be able to post to LinkedIn from Cursor about all my B2B SaaS learnings."

True to hacker spirit, Eric built his own LinkedIn posting MCP server and demonstrated it live on stage. Using Playwright under the hood, the server can automatically navigate to LinkedIn, fill in post fields, and even attach images - all triggered from within Cursor. While he wisely implemented a dry-run mode for the demo, the concept sparked genuine interest from the audience.

Key Insights for MCP Adoption

Eric's presentation revealed several important lessons for anyone building MCP clients or servers:

Reduce friction at all costs. The dramatic uptick in usage following the one-click install feature proves that even small convenience improvements can have outsized impacts on adoption.

Developers want context-rich tools. The popularity of documentation, database, and design integration tools shows that developers value MCP servers that bring external context into their coding environment.

Real data beats synthetic examples. Eric's emphasis on Supabase's value for pulling actual database samples into context highlights how realistic data helps catch edge cases that artificial examples miss.

Stable growth matters more than spikes. The consistent week-over-week user growth indicates genuine utility rather than novelty-driven interest.

Looking Forward

Eric's data-driven perspective on MCP adoption provides valuable validation for the protocol's potential. The fact that Cursor users are not just trying MCP servers but continuing to use them week after week suggests that the Model Context Protocol is solving real problems for developers.

The combination of solid infrastructure (like one-click installs), useful integrations (documentation, databases, design tools), and the occasional delightful surprise (LinkedIn posting from your IDE) creates an ecosystem that developers actually want to engage with.

As MCP continues to mature, Eric's insights from Cursor's implementation offer a roadmap for other tool builders: focus on reducing friction, provide genuine value through better context, and always keep the data close at hand to understand what's actually working.

Want to see more MCP Night 2.0 demonstrations? Check out our other demo recaps in this series, including presentations from Mux and others showcasing the growing MCP ecosystem.