How to use APITube in Cursor, Claude and VS Code#

To use APITube inside an AI assistant, point the assistant at the hosted MCP server https://mcp.apitube.io/ and add an Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY header in its MCP config, then restart the editor. The server is hosted, so there is nothing to install — you edit one config file (or run one command), and the assistant can search News API news in plain language. Cursor, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, VS Code (GitHub Copilot) and Windsurf are all supported.

The setup is the same everywhere: the server URL is always https://mcp.apitube.io/, and your normal APITube API key goes in the Authorization: Bearer header. Only the config file location and its exact shape differ per editor. Get a key first at where to find and create your API key, then follow the block for your editor below.

How to connect Cursor to APITube#

Cursor supports remote MCP servers directly, so you only add the URL and header. Edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json for all projects, or .cursor/mcp.json inside a single project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apitube-news": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apitube.io/",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Save the file, restart Cursor, then open Settings → MCP and confirm apitube-news shows as connected.

How to connect Claude Code to APITube#

Claude Code can add the server from the terminal in one command:

claude mcp add --transport http apitube-news https://mcp.apitube.io/ \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

To commit the server to a repository instead, add an .mcp.json file to the repo root with "type": "http", the same URL and the same Authorization header. Run /mcp inside Claude Code to check the connection.

How to connect Claude Desktop to APITube#

Claude Desktop launches MCP servers as local processes and cannot call a remote server directly, so you bridge the hosted server with mcp-remote. Edit claude_desktop_config.json (in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS, or %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apitube-news": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.apitube.io/",
        "--header",
        "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop, and apitube-news appears under the tools (slider) icon. npx downloads the mcp-remote bridge on demand, so there is still nothing to install by hand.

How to connect VS Code and Windsurf to APITube#

VS Code (GitHub Copilot) reads .vscode/mcp.json per workspace. Use an input so the key is not stored in plain text, then open Copilot Chat in Agent mode and select the apitube-news tools:

{
  "inputs": [
    { "type": "promptString", "id": "apitube-key", "description": "APITube API Key", "password": true }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "apitube-news": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.apitube.io/",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:apitube-key}" }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf uses ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json and the serverUrl key instead of url:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apitube-news": {
      "serverUrl": "https://mcp.apitube.io/",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Open Windsurf Settings → Cascade → MCP Servers and refresh.

How do I verify the connection works?#

Once the editor restarts and shows apitube-news connected, ask a natural-language question and let the assistant call the tools for you:

Find positive breaking news about Tesla in English from the last week

The assistant calls the server’s search_news tool and returns matching articles. The server exposes two tools — search_news (search and filter) and suggest (resolve a name like “Tesla” to the exact entity.id, category.id, topic.id or industry.id) — plus four ready-made prompts surfaced as slash commands: monitor_company, topic_sentiment, breaking_news and compare_coverage. You never type a tool name yourself; you ask the question and the assistant picks the tool. For the concept behind all of this, see what is the APITube MCP server, and for the canonical per-editor reference see the official code editors setup.

Common Questions#

• Which editors and assistants are supported?
• Why doesn’t the server show up after I add it?
• Why does a search fail with 403 ER0603?
• Which API key should I use here?

Which editors and assistants are supported?#

The hosted APITube MCP server works with any MCP-compatible client. The step-by-step configs above cover Cursor, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, VS Code (through GitHub Copilot) and Windsurf. Clients that support remote servers natively — Cursor, Claude Code, VS Code and Windsurf — take the URL and header directly; clients that only launch local processes, such as Claude Desktop, use the mcp-remote bridge to reach the same hosted URL.

Why doesn’t the server show up after I add it?#

Almost always because the editor was not restarted, or the config file is in the wrong place. Save the config, fully restart the editor, and confirm you used that editor’s exact file — ~/.cursor/mcp.json for Cursor, .vscode/mcp.json for VS Code, claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, and so on. Also check the header is spelled Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY; if that header never reaches the server, tool calls fail even though the server is listed.

Why does a search fail with 403 ER0603?#

A 403 with code ER0603 means your API key is not permitted to call the MCP tools (search_news and suggest). Grant the key the matching endpoint permissions in its settings, or use a key with full access. Treat the key like a password and never commit it in plain text — see API key security best practices.

Which API key should I use here?#

Your normal APITube API key — the same one you use on the News API. The MCP server validates it against your account on every tool call, so usage from your editor draws on the same key, plan and quota as your direct API requests. Get or create one on the API key page.