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Bifocal’s MCP server lets you work with your projects, insights, solutions, and prototypes directly from AI coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor — without switching to the browser. Ask questions, explore feedback, and manage projects entirely from your terminal or IDE.

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What you can do

Once connected, your AI coding tool can:
  • Explore research — read synthesized insights, pull supporting user quotes, and understand what’s driving user friction
  • Manage projects — create and update projects, add PRD context, and browse everything in your organization
  • Generate and refine solutions — create solution directions based on insights, review full intervention detail, and update them
  • Build and edit prototypes — generate working prototypes from solutions, send targeted edits, import local builds, inspect sitemaps, and export source code
  • Add feedback — attach research notes or PDFs to a project to feed into the next round of insights
This makes it possible to do things like: “Generate a solution for the top insight and build me a prototype” or “Edit the latest prototype to surface pricing earlier in the flow” — entirely from your terminal or IDE.

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Common MCP workflows

The core value of the MCP is that it allows you to run Bifocal directly from your coding setup. This means you can stay integrated and in flow without needing to leave your terminal or IDE.
As soon as you’re done building a prototype in your terminal or IDE, ask your coding agent to create a project in Bifocal. Using the MCP, the agent can create a project and import the prototype directly into Bifocal. Bifocal will build the prototype and provide you with a shareable link to the prototype in a couple of minutes. As you collect feedback, you can also ask your agent to use the MCP to import the feedback from a file on your device directly into Bifocal.
After you collect feedback on your prototype, you’ll want to start generating potential solutions on how to iterate. Working from your IDE or terminal, ask your agent to generate two or three solutions from different insights and create prototypes from each. You can continue to explore and iterate until you find a solution you like. And every prototype instantly has a shareable URL without needing to worry about hosting.
After testing a prototype, feedback typically gets lost in Slack or a doc somewhere. With the MCP, you can attach research notes directly to the project, then ask the AI to edit the prototype based on what you learned — all in the same session.
Already using Lovable, Figma Make, or Cursor to build? You can import prototypes from any tool directly into Bifocal. Your AI coding tool handles the import — you just point it at the file. And when you’ve found. solution you like and want to continue iterating in your design or coding tool of choice you can export the prototype from Bifocal.

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Use Bifocal’s coding agent vs. your coding tool via MCP

By default, Bifocal uses its own coding agent to build prototypes — you ask, it generates, and a live prototype URL is ready in minutes. But with the MCP you can also have your AI coding tool (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor) build the prototype locally. This gives you direct access to the code as it’s being written — useful when you want to make precise implementation decisions or iterate on specific interactions without going through another generation cycle. Once it’s built, it imports back into Bifocal automatically. Most teams use Bifocal’s agent for exploration and speed, and switch to the client when they’re refining something specific or need tighter control over how the prototype is built.

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Installing the MCP

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Requirements

  • Node.js installed (already required by Claude Code and most AI coding tools)
  • A Bifocal account with at least one organization
  • A Bifocal API key (see below)

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Generate an API key

Each API key is scoped to one organization. If you belong to multiple organizations, you’ll have a separate key for each.
  1. Go to Account Settings (bottom-left of the sidebar)
  2. Under API Keys, find the organization you want to connect
  3. Click Generate API Key
  4. Copy the key — it starts with bif_ and is only shown once
Keep your key safe. Anyone with your API key can read your project data. If you think a key has been compromised, revoke it from Account Settings and generate a new one.

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Installation

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Claude Code

  1. Open your terminal
  2. Run the following command, replacing bif_your_key_here with your API key:
claude mcp add bifocal npx -y @bifocal/mcp \\
  -e BIFOCAL_API_KEY=bif_your_key_here
  1. Restart Claude Code or run /mcp to connect
  2. Verify it’s working by asking: “What are my Bifocal projects?”
Updates to the MCP server are automatic — npx always pulls the latest version.

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Cursor

  1. Open Cursor and go to Settings → MCP
  2. Click Add MCP Server
  3. Enter the following configuration:
{
  "bifocal": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "@bifocal/mcp"],
    "env": {
      "BIFOCAL_API_KEY": "bif_your_key_here"
    }
  }
}
  1. Save and restart Cursor

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Windsurf

  1. Open the file ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json (create it if it doesn’t exist)
  2. Add the following:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bifocal": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@bifocal/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BIFOCAL_API_KEY": "bif_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Restart Windsurf

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Remote server (coming soon)

We’re building a hosted version of the Bifocal MCP server that will work directly from Claude.ai and other tools that support remote MCP connections — no terminal or config file required. You’ll be able to connect Bifocal with a single click. We’ll announce this when it’s available.

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Troubleshooting

“Invalid or revoked API key” Your key may have been regenerated or revoked. Go to Account Settings, generate a new key, and update your MCP config. Note that after updating the config you may need to fully restart your AI coding tool for the new key to take effect. Tools not showing up Try disconnecting and reconnecting the MCP server. In Claude Code, run /mcp to reconnect. In Cursor and Windsurf, restart the application. “fetch failed” error The Bifocal API server may be unreachable. Check your internet connection and try again.