Aether Docs

Connect your coding agent straight to Aether over MCP — the recommended way to give Claude Code, Cursor, and Continue.dev persistent memory and retrieval without leaving the editor.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets an AI agent talk to outside tools. Aether ships a small MCP server — @aether-ai/mcp-server — that your agent launches locally. Once it's wired up, the agent can search, insert, and manage your Aether knowledge base directly, in plain language, on every request.

This is the fastest path if your client supports MCP: you paste one config block, restart, and the agent connects. No SDK, no boilerplate, no glue code.

This is not the ChatGPT / Claude web connector

This page is the local MCP server for coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Continue.dev) — it authenticates with an Aether API key you paste into the config. If you instead want to use Aether inside ChatGPT or the Claude web/desktop apps (a hosted connector you sign into with OAuth, no key), see Aether as an MCP connector.

Before you start

You need two values from the Aether dashboard:

An API key — mint one on the API Keys page. The dashboard's Install MCP server card can generate a key scoped for MCP and drop it straight into the snippet for you.
Your tenant id — shown in the dashboard. It's only needed for the management tools (usage and key tools); the search and insert tools work with just the key.

You also need Node.js 18 or newer, so your agent can launch the server with npx. Nothing to install ahead of time — npx fetches the server the first time it runs.

Install per client

Pick your client, paste the config into the file it reads, and restart it. Your agent connects on the next start.

Claude Code

Add it from the CLI:

Bash

claude mcp add aether \
  --env AETHER_API_KEY=<your-aether-api-key> \
  --env AETHER_TENANT_ID=<your-tenant-id> \
  -- npx -y @aether-ai/mcp-server

Or add the server by hand to ~/.claude.json (global) or a project .mcp.json:

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aether": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aether-ai/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "AETHER_API_KEY": "<your-aether-api-key>",
        "AETHER_TENANT_ID": "<your-tenant-id>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add the server to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or a project .cursor/mcp.json:

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aether": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aether-ai/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "AETHER_API_KEY": "<your-aether-api-key>",
        "AETHER_TENANT_ID": "<your-tenant-id>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor picks up MCP servers under Settings → MCP; you should see aether turn green once it connects.

Continue.dev

Add the server to ~/.continue/config.yaml:

YAML

mcpServers:
  - name: aether
    command: npx
    args:
      - "-y"
      - "@aether-ai/mcp-server"
    env:
      AETHER_API_KEY: <your-aether-api-key>
      AETHER_TENANT_ID: <your-tenant-id>

Keep your key private

The API key in this config gives the agent full read, write, and management access to your Aether account. Treat the config file like a secret — don't commit a project .mcp.json / .cursor/mcp.json with a real key. Prefer the global config file, or add the file to .gitignore. You can revoke a key any time on the API Keys page.

What tools the agent can use

Once connected, your agent gets these tools. It picks the right one on its own — you just ask in plain language ("save this to Aether", "what did we decide about pricing?").

Tool	What it does	Needs tenant id
`aether_auth`	Sign in — save your API key (or run browser sign-in) so the other tools can reach your knowledge base.	—
`aether_search`	Semantic search over your knowledge base; returns the top matches with relevance scores.	No
`aether_retrieve`	Search and return the matched context concatenated, ready to drop into a RAG prompt.	No
`aether_insert`	Store text — or a local text/markdown file — in your knowledge base.	No
`aether_usage`	Plain-English summary of your current usage against your plan.	Yes
`aether_list_keys`	List your API keys and when each was last used.	Yes
`aether_create_key`	Mint a new API key.	Yes

The management tools (aether_usage, aether_list_keys, aether_create_key) need AETHER_TENANT_ID set in the config's env block. Leave it out and the agent still has full search, retrieve, and insert.

Try it

Restart your client, then ask the agent something like:

"Save this to my Aether knowledge base: our Q3 pricing moves to three tiers — Starter, Team, and Scale."

"Search my Aether knowledge base for what we decided about onboarding."

The dashboard's status pill flips to MCP connected — your agent has full management access once the server makes its first call, so you can confirm the connection took.

Troubleshooting

The agent doesn't see the Aether tools. Restart the client fully after editing its config — MCP servers are launched at startup. Double-check the config file is valid JSON/YAML (a trailing comma is the usual culprit) and that it's the file your client actually reads (global vs. project).

npx: command not found or the server won't launch. Install Node.js 18+ and make sure node and npx are on your PATH. The first launch downloads @aether-ai/mcp-server, so give it a few seconds and make sure you're online.

Authentication failed / 401. The AETHER_API_KEY is missing, mistyped, or revoked. Mint a fresh key on the API Keys page and update the config.

A management tool says a tenant id is required. aether_usage, aether_list_keys, and aether_create_key need AETHER_TENANT_ID in the env block. Copy it from the dashboard and restart the client.

Pointing at a self-hosted or non-default endpoint. Set AETHER_ENDPOINT (or AETHER_BASE_URL) in the env block. It defaults to https://api.aetherdb.ai.

Next steps

Install the SDKs — build directly on the same knowledge base your agent reads from, in Python, TypeScript, Go, or .NET.
Aether as an MCP connector — the hosted connector for ChatGPT and the Claude apps (OAuth, no key to paste).
What can I build? — ideas for putting a persistent knowledge base to work.