Use okdata in Cursor: social data through MCP

After this page, the agent in Cursor can reach real social data while it builds something for you. A common case: you are making an internal page that shows what people post about your brand on X. Instead of inventing sample data, the agent reads the endpoint's fields with describe, fetches one real page, saves it as a fixture and writes the types and the component against it. You see every paid step before it runs.

Before you start

Cursor installed and signed in.
An API key from okdata, starting with okd_. New keys come with $0.10 of credit. The quickstart explains how to get one.
The key in the OKDATA_API_KEY environment variable. On a Mac, add this to ~/.zshrc (Linux: ~/.bashrc; Windows: set a user environment variable in System Settings):

export OKDATA_API_KEY="okd_..."

Then quit Cursor completely and open it again, so it picks the variable up.

Add the server

Cursor reads MCP servers from two files: ~/.cursor/mcp.json in your home folder applies to every project, and .cursor/mcp.json inside a project applies to that project only. Add this to either one:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "okdata": {
      "url": "https://api.okdata.online/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:OKDATA_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}

${env:OKDATA_API_KEY} tells Cursor to fill in the variable when it connects, so the file never contains the key. That also makes the project version safe to commit; teammates set their own variable. If the file already lists other servers, add the "okdata" block inside the existing mcpServers.

Check that it worked

Open Customize in the sidebar. okdata should be listed and switched on, with four tools: find, describe, call and account. If it shows an error instead, see the last section.

In the Agent chat, ask: "What is my okdata balance?" A number in the answer means the key arrived. It costs nothing.

A first prompt to try

Use okdata. Describe the X post search endpoint and tell me its price.
Then fetch one page for "our-brand-name", save the raw items to
fixtures/x-posts.json, and write a TypeScript type for one item based on it.

By default Cursor asks before it runs an MCP tool. Click the arrow next to a tool name to see the exact arguments before you approve. Once you trust the free tools, you can allow find and describe to run without asking and keep call on manual approval.

What it costs

find, describe and account are free. Each call costs the endpoint's price: one page of X post search is $0.006, so the prompt above costs $0.006. A page of Xiaohongshu note search is $0.02. Failed calls are free.

When an agent loops through pages it can add up. Put the limit in the prompt: "one page only" or "stop after three pages and ask me".

When something goes wrong

unauthorized (401). The header went out without a key. Usually Cursor was already open when you set the variable: quit it fully and reopen. Also check the spelling ${env:OKDATA_API_KEY}, with env: in front.
insufficient_balance (402). Not enough balance for the call; nothing was charged. Top up and run it again. Prices are on the pricing page.
rate_limited (429). Too many calls in a short time. The error has retry_after_seconds; wait that long and repeat the call. No charge.
The server shows an error or no tools. Check the JSON (a missing comma is the usual culprit) and that the URL ends in /mcp. Opening the URL in a browser shows "Method not allowed", which is expected: the server only answers MCP requests. Toggle the server off and on in Customize to reconnect.