The Vercel MCP server, enumerated live on a real Mac.

Claude Desktop

Open the file ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (in Claude Desktop: Settings, then Developer, then Edit Config) and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vercel": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@mistertk/vercel-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "VERCEL_API_KEY": "your_vercel_access_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Paste your own token in place of the placeholder, then quit and reopen Claude Desktop. Claude Desktop can also reach Vercel's own hosted server instead, through Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, which Vercel documents as a paid-plan feature; that route needs no JSON and no token, but it does need an OAuth sign-in. [8][4]

Claude Code

One command in your terminal:

claude mcp add vercel -e VERCEL_API_KEY=your_vercel_access_token -- npx -y @mistertk/vercel-mcp

The -e flag sets the environment variable, and everything after the double dash is the exact command Claude Code will run. Your token ends up in your shell history, so paste it in a fresh terminal if that matters to you. Vercel documents a second route for this client, claude mcp add --transport http vercel https://mcp.vercel.com, which points at Vercel's own server and authorises in the browser when you type /mcp. [9][4]

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project, or to .cursor/mcp.json inside one project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vercel": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@mistertk/vercel-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "VERCEL_API_KEY": "your_vercel_access_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor picks the file up on restart. A project-level .cursor/mcp.json is worth committing to git only after you have moved the token out of it. Vercel also publishes a Cursor snippet for its own hosted server, which is the same file with a single url line instead of the command and env. [10][4]

Routines

No JSON file and no terminal. In Routines: Settings, then Assistant, then Connections, then Add MCP Server. Switch the form to Command (stdio) and enter:

Name        Vercel
Command     npx
Arguments   -y @mistertk/vercel-mcp

Environment Variables
VERCEL_API_KEY=your_vercel_access_token

The token belongs in the Environment Variables field, on its own line, not in Arguments. Click Test Connection first: a working server answers with its tool count, one hundred and thirty-one for this package. If it answers nothing at all, the variable did not reach the process. [11]

The server exits the moment it starts

What you see

Configuration error: Missing Vercel API key. Set VERCEL_API_KEY environment variable or pass VERCEL_API_KEY=<key> as argument

Usage:
  Environment variable: export VERCEL_API_KEY=<YOUR_API_KEY>
  Command line: node script.js VERCEL_API_KEY=<YOUR_API_KEY>

Optional environment variables:
  VERCEL_REQUEST_TIMEOUT - Request timeout in ms (default: 30000)
  VERCEL_MAX_RETRIES - Maximum retry attempts (default: 3)
  VERCEL_DEBUG - Enable debug logging (default: false)
  VERCEL_RATE_LIMIT_PER_MINUTE - API calls per minute (default: 60)
  VERCEL_RATE_LIMIT_BURST - Burst limit (default: 10)

The fix

No token reached the process, so it printed this and quit before the MCP handshake began. We reproduced it by launching the package with the variable unset. There is no partial mode here: with no token there is no tools/list either, which is why a client shows a dead connection rather than an empty one. In a form-based client, check that the value went into the Environment Variables field and not into Arguments. The optional variables in the same message are real and useful: VERCEL_DEBUG=true is the quickest way to see what the server is actually sending.

It rejects a token that looks fine

What you see

Configuration error: Invalid Vercel API key format

The fix

The package checks the shape of the token on your own Mac before it ever calls Vercel, and refuses anything too short or containing characters outside letters, digits, underscores and hyphens. We triggered this on purpose with a four-character value. It is a fast offline failure, so it is easy to tell apart from the 403 further down this list: this one happens at startup, the 403 happens on a tool call. A stray space or a quote copied along with the token is the usual cause.

Every tool call comes back Not authorized

What you see

Error getting auth user: API error occurred: Status 403 Content-Type "application/json; charset=utf-8". Body: {"error":{"code":"forbidden","message":"Not authorized","invalidToken":true}}

The fix

The server is running and the tools are there; Vercel is refusing the token. This is the reply we got throughout our own run, because our token was a placeholder rather than a real one, and it is why this page is marked as enumerated rather than fully verified. The same message covers a revoked token, an expired one, and a token scoped to a different account or project than the resource you asked about. Create a fresh token on the Account Tokens page in the Vercel dashboard and restart the server.

A call fails before it reaches Vercel

What you see

MCP error -32602: Input validation error: Invalid arguments for tool getDeployment: Required at deploymentId

The fix

Not a Vercel problem: the server checked the arguments and found a required one missing. We got this by calling getDeployment with no arguments at all. Most tools here take at least one identifier, and many take an optional teamId, which you need when the resource belongs to a team rather than your personal account. Ask the assistant to run a listing tool first, such as getDeployments or listProjects, and let it take the identifier from that result.

Vercel's own hosted endpoint answers 401

What you see

HTTP/2 401
www-authenticate: Bearer error="invalid_token", error_description="No authorization provided", resource_metadata="https://mcp.vercel.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource"
{"error":"invalid_token","error_description":"No authorization provided"}

The fix

Expected, and worth knowing before you spend an evening on it. Vercel's hosted server at mcp.vercel.com is a different product from the local package on this page, and it accepts nothing without credentials. We sent an initialize request with no Authorization header and got this back, along with a pointer to the OAuth metadata it publishes. Reaching that server means an OAuth sign-in your MCP client completes for you in a browser, and Vercel only allows clients it has reviewed and approved.

npx starts and then says the command was not found

What you see

sh: vercel-mcp: command not found

The fix

You installed a different package. Several npm packages carry Vercel MCP names and they are not interchangeable: we hit this exact line running npx -y vercel-mcp-server, whose published archive does not contain the file its own manifest points at, so npx downloads it, finds nothing to run, and hands the failure to the shell. The package this page verified is the scoped one, @mistertk/vercel-mcp. Copy the name including the @mistertk/ prefix.

Your MCP client cannot start the server at all

The fix

The npx command belongs to Node.js. If Node is not installed on your Mac, every client on this page fails at the spawn step before the server can say anything. Install Node from nodejs.org, restart your MCP client, and try again.