AI assistant in Cursor: weekly scorecard and margin without a new dashboard
Who this is for: Owner, delivery lead, and finance on T&M/hybrid teams with a weekly commercial slot.
When to read: If you want margin and invoice-readiness KPI in IDE without copying exports into chat.
What you get: What MCP adds, limits, three sample prompts, and a 7-day rollout.
Next step: Pricing (AI from Start), Book a review, procurement pack.
MarginLayer’s MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration is a read-only bridge from your AI assistant in Cursor (or compatible clients) to live API data: pilot scorecard, top margin risks, weekly trends, engagements, and billing snapshot — the same weekly picture as the invoice-readiness checklist, not a separate “AI product.”
Why owners and delivery care
Before week close you need fast answers: which contracts are red, what is invoice-ready, where scope lacks money status. MCP lets you ask in natural language inside IDE — if MarginLayer already has timesheets and baseline scope. It supports weekly risk signals; it does not replace approve/hold decisions.
What the MarginLayer MCP server exposes
- Pilot scorecard and top risks
- Weekly trends (parameterized weeks)
- Engagements list, billing snapshot, onboarding status
- GET only — no writes through MCP
Setup entry point: cabinet Developer / MCP — download Cursor config, copy access token.
What it is not
- Not ERP/accounting or task-tracker replacement
- Not auto-negotiation with clients
- Not useful without a weekly owner + finance + delivery cadence
Tiers
AI assistant integration (MCP) from Start upward. Solo is blocked with an upgrade hint. See pricing comparison.
Connect in four steps
- Sign in with Start+ tier.
- Open Developer / MCP, copy access token.
- Add
mcp.jsonto Cursor withMARGINLAYER_TOKEN. - Enable
marginlayer-app, restart IDE, verify health.
Three prompts for your weekly slot
- “Show top risks and pilot scorecard for this week.”
- “Which engagements are red on margin and have scope without money status?”
- “Weekly trends for 6 weeks — what changed vs last week?”
Security
- Treat token like a password; rotate on leak.
- Read-only via MCP; changes stay in the cabinet UI.
What to do in 7 days
- Confirm Start+ and Developer / MCP access.
- Connect Cursor; validate scorecard on 2–3 pilot contracts.
- Agree three standing questions for the weekly meeting.
- Cross-check agent answers with the readiness checklist.
When not to start
- No weekly cross-functional slot.
- No live timesheet/baseline data in MarginLayer.
- Expecting AI to replace commercial decisions.
- Solo tier with no upgrade path.