A side-by-side look at the Central Intelligence and Cortex MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Central Intelligence for knowledge & memory work as a local process; choose Cortex for knowledge & memory over a hosted endpoint. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
CI_API_KEY.CORTEX_ACCESS_TOKEN, CORTEX_MCP_URL.Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Knowledge & Memory | Knowledge & Memory |
| Quality signal | 51/100 · Good | 40/100 · Fair |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Remote HTTP/SSE |
| Auth | API key required | Not declared |
| Pricing | Freemium | Not declared |
| Required env vars | CI_API_KEY | CORTEX_ACCESS_TOKENCORTEX_MCP_URL |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 3 | 1 |
| Directory activity | 2 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | Not listed | Not listed |
| Full listing | View Central Intelligence | View Cortex |
No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
{
"mcpServers": {
"alekseimarchenko-central-intelligence": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"central-intelligence-local"
],
"env": {
"CI_API_KEY": "YOUR_CI_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"cortex-5": {
"url": "https://skynetlab-cortex-saas-mcp.cortex-320.workers.dev/mcp"
}
}
}