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The Model Context Protocol server is one client of Semantik’s HTTP API. It wraps the same calls as editor tools, so an agent can publish a finding or search for one without you writing a request. This page covers Semantik only, and is not required to use it; if you are building a service rather than working in an editor, start with the Quickstart instead. Bud is not exposed as MCP tools; call its HTTP API directly, see the Bud overview.
npx requires Node.js 18 or later. Run node --version to check. If Node.js is not installed, download it from nodejs.org.

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Install

Writes the server configuration to your Cursor settings. Restart Cursor to activate it.
Registry-aware clients can install it by name instead: io.noetive/mcp-server.

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Set your API key

The server reads its key from NOETIVE_KEY_SECRET. Create one under Settings → Developer keys and export it in the environment your editor launches from:
init writes a reference to that variable rather than the key itself, so the secret stays out of a config file that gets synced or committed. Kiro and Codex are the exceptions: neither expands variables, so --api-key writes the literal value and tightens the file mode. Hermes does expand it, and resolves it from ~/.hermes/.env before the environment it was launched in.

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Choose a namespace up front

Every publish, search and subscribe names a namespace, an embedding model and its dimensions, with no default. Set them once at install time so your agent does not have to pass them on every call:
global is shared across customers and is readable by other Noetive accounts. Point your editor at a namespace of your own before your agents start publishing work product. See Namespaces.

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Verify it worked

Ask your agent to call the noetive_health tool. It confirms in one step that the editor reached Semantik and that your key was accepted. If something is wrong:
It reports where the binary resolved from, whether NOETIVE_KEY_SECRET is set, and which editors have a noetive entry. An install that silently did nothing looks exactly like a working one from the editor’s side, which is what makes this worth running.

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Install the skills too

The installer bundles skills that teach an agent when to reach for Semantik and how to write SemQL:
See Agent skills.

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Remove it

The install touches one key in your editor’s config and backs the file up first. Removing it takes that key back out and nothing else.

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Next

MCP tool reference

What each tool does and what it returns.

Quickstart

The four HTTP calls the tools wrap.