How to Connect Xero to Cursor via MCP

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

Xero + Cursor

Let your AI read your Xero books: sales invoices and supplier bills, customer and supplier contacts, the chart of accounts, the Trial Balance and the Profit and Loss with period comparisons, on an accrual or cash basis. Read-only, with your own Xero OAuth2 app and a sign-in through Authorize with Provider.

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:

XERO_CLIENT_ID, XERO_CLIENT_SECRET

Step 1 — Get credentials

1. Sign in at developer.xero.com/app/manage (My Apps) and create an OAuth2 app of type Web app (authorization code flow).
2. As redirect URI, enter https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/api/mcp-oauth/callback for AnythingMCP Cloud, or <your AnythingMCP URL>/api/mcp-oauth/callback if you host AnythingMCP yourself. It must match exactly.
3. On the app's Configuration page, copy the Client ID into XERO_CLIENT_ID, then generate a client secret and paste it into XERO_CLIENT_SECRET.
4. Leave XERO_TENANT_ID and XERO_REFRESH_TOKEN empty and install the connector. On the connector page, click Authorize with Provider, sign in to Xero and connect the organisation the AI should read.
5. Run xero_list_connections. Pick the entry with the right tenantName and the tenantType ORGANISATION, and copy its tenantId into XERO_TENANT_ID. Don't use the connection's id or authEventId: those are different values. Until XERO_TENANT_ID is set, the other tools stop before calling Xero and name the missing variable.
6. Run xero_get_organisation and check the organisation name before the AI reads any figures. One connector reads one organisation; install it again for a second one.

Staying signed in: access tokens last 30 minutes and are renewed automatically, and AnythingMCP stores every new refresh token Xero hands out. A refresh token that is not renewed for 60 days expires; then click Authorize with Provider again. Fill in XERO_REFRESH_TOKEN only if you already hold a current refresh token for the same app with the same read-only consent, and don't share a refresh token with another integration: Xero replaces it on every renewal, so one of the two would be left with an invalid one.

Read-only by design: all ten tools only read (GET); none of them creates, changes or deletes accounting data. The connector asks for the read-only scopes openid offline_access accounting.invoices.read accounting.contacts.read accounting.settings.read accounting.reports.trialbalance.read accounting.reports.profitandloss.read. Xero adds consent rather than replacing it: if this app was authorised with write scopes before, the token keeps them. To narrow it down, revoke the old connection in Xero and click Authorize with Provider again. The AI also sees only what the Xero user who signs in may see; the reports need a user with access to reports.

Invoices, contacts and accounts: xero_list_invoices returns sales invoices (ACCREC) and supplier bills (ACCPAY) together. Filter with where, for example Type=="ACCREC", and sort with order, for example InvoiceNumber ASC. Invoices and contacts come in pages of up to 100; the AI keeps paging until a page comes back empty or short. xero_list_contacts searches names, contact numbers and email addresses and includes archived contacts on request. The chart of accounts comes in one piece. xero_get_invoice, xero_get_contact and xero_get_account need the UUID from the matching list, not an invoice number, contact name or account code.

Reports: xero_get_trial_balance takes one date, xero_get_profit_and_loss takes fromDate and toDate (format YYYY-MM-DD). Both run on an accrual basis unless you ask for the cash basis (paymentsOnly). The Profit and Loss can compare 1 to 12 periods by month, quarter or year (periods and timeframe).

Common errors: 401 or 403 means missing consent, an expired authorisation, a Xero user without the needed permissions, or an organisation that is not connected to this app: check XERO_TENANT_ID against xero_list_connections, then click Authorize with Provider again. 429 means Xero's rate limit for the organisation was hit: the AI waits the seconds given in Retry-After before trying again, and the X-Rate-Limit-Problem header says which limit it was. The limits depend on your app's tier, see Xero's API limits.

The connector does not create, change or delete anything in Xero, and it does not read bank transactions, the Balance Sheet, payroll, files or attachments.

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 Xero tools.

Available tools

Example prompts

• "Which sales invoices are still unpaid, and how much does each customer owe us in total?"
• "Show me the Profit and Loss for last quarter compared with the three quarters before."
• "Which supplier bills fall due in the next 14 days, and for what amounts?"
• "Find Acme Ltd in our contacts and show me their email address, billing address and outstanding balance."

FAQ

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

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