How to Connect SAP SuccessFactors to Cursor via MCP

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → SAP SuccessFactors, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key and you're done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

SAP SuccessFactors + Cursor

Read SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central through its OData API: employees, job information, persons, companies, departments, positions and time off, plus generic OData tools for any other entity. OAuth 2.0 SAML bearer, read-only.

Prerequisites

See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:

SF_API_URL, SF_COMPANY_ID, SF_CLIENT_ID, SF_SAML_ASSERTION

Step 1 — Get credentials

1. In SuccessFactors open Admin Center → Manage OAuth2 Client Applications → Register Client Application. Generate an X.509 certificate there (or upload your own), download the private key, and copy the API Key shown after registering into SF_CLIENT_ID.
2. Generate a SAML assertion for the API user with SAP's offline SAML assertion generator (SAP Note 3031657): token URL <api-server>/oauth/token, the API key as client id, the API user, the private key, and expireInMinutes set to how long the assertion should stay usable. Paste the base64 assertion into SF_SAML_ASSERTION.
3. Set SF_API_URL to the OData API server of your data center, without /odata/v2, for example https://api4.successfactors.com or https://api012.successfactors.eu. SAP's List of SAP SuccessFactors API Servers names it, and it matches the host of your login URL.
4. Set SF_COMPANY_ID to your company ID: it is shown under your name (top right) → Show version information, and in the login URL as company=.
5. Give the API user the Employee Central API permission (Role-Based Permissions → Employee Central API: OData API access) and read permission on the entities and fields the AI should see.
6. Install the connector. Start with sap_successfactors_guide, which costs no API call, then run sap_successfactors_list_users: a list of employees shows the connection works.

Tokens: the connector exchanges the assertion for an access token valid 24 hours and renews it automatically while the assertion is valid. When the assertion expires, generate a new one and paste it into SF_SAML_ASSERTION. SAP retires HTTP Basic authentication for these APIs on 20 November 2026, so it is not offered.

Read-only: the AI reads, it does not change anything in SuccessFactors. Every call runs as the API user the assertion names, so SuccessFactors role-based permissions decide what it sees.

What it reads: employee profiles with their userId, job information (company, department, position, manager, employment status), person records with personal info, emails and phones, legal entities, departments, positions with vacancy and FTE, and time off requests. For any other entity, sap_successfactors_get_entity_metadata lists its fields and the generic OData tools read it.

Effective dating: job information, companies, departments and positions return the record valid today. Ask for a date or a date range when you need history.

Limits: a page holds at most 1000 rows, and the AI narrows large lists with filters. SAP throttles heavy API use per tenant, so the AI filters by last change date instead of reading all users again and again.

Good to know: inactive users only appear when you ask for them by status, and picklist fields come back as codes unless the AI expands their labels.

The connector does not hire, change job or pay data, approve time off or write to any SuccessFactors entity.

Step 2 — Install the adapter

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Step 3 — Add the connector in Cursor

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Cursor reads MCP servers from ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Add this entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmcp": {
      "url": "https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

1. Create an MCP API key in AnythingMCP under MCP Servers → your server → API keys, and paste it in place of YOUR_MCP_API_KEY.
2. Save the file and restart Cursor.
3. Open Cursor → Settings → MCP and check that anythingmcp is listed and connected.
4. Start chatting: the agent can now call the SAP SuccessFactors tools.

Available tools

Example prompts

• "How many active employees do we have per department, and who heads each department?"
• "Who is absent next week, and which time off requests are still waiting for approval?"
• "List our vacant positions with their company, department and FTE."
• "Show the job history of employee 10234 over the last two years: department, position and manager changes."

FAQ

Does Cursor support custom MCP servers on the free tier? Yes, MCP is available on Hobby, Pro and Business plans.

Next steps

• Connector landing page
• Connect to Claude
• Connect to ChatGPT