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Task Master MCP server

Provides task management capabilities for development workflows with PRD parsing, task CRUD operations with dependency management, complexity analysis, and context-based organization across project phases.
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Setup instructions
Provider
Eyal Toledano
Release date
Apr 07, 2025
Language
Go
Stats
20.6K stars
View on GitHub

Task Master is an AI-driven task management system designed to work seamlessly with Cursor AI and other code editors. It helps developers break down and manage projects by leveraging AI to generate, track, and implement development tasks.

Installation Options

Cursor and Other MCP-Compatible Editors

Using One-Click Installation (Cursor 1.0+)

You can install Task Master using the one-click installation link. After clicking, you'll need to replace the placeholder API keys with your actual keys.

Manual MCP Configuration

Add Task Master to your editor's MCP configuration file:

  1. Locate your editor's configuration file:
Editor Scope Linux/macOS Path Windows Path
Cursor Global ~/.cursor/mcp.json %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\mcp.json
Project <project_folder>/.cursor/mcp.json <project_folder>\.cursor\mcp.json
Windsurf Global ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf\mcp_config.json
VS Code Project <project_folder>/.vscode/mcp.json <project_folder>\.vscode\mcp.json
  1. Add the configuration:

For Cursor & Windsurf:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "task-master-ai": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "--package=task-master-ai", "task-master-ai"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE",
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE",
        "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE",
        "MISTRAL_API_KEY": "YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE",
        "GROQ_API_KEY": "YOUR_GROQ_KEY_HERE",
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE",
        "XAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE",
        "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE",
        "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

For VS Code:

{
  "servers": {
    "task-master-ai": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "--package=task-master-ai", "task-master-ai"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE",
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE",
        "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE",
        "MISTRAL_API_KEY": "YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE",
        "GROQ_API_KEY": "YOUR_GROQ_KEY_HERE",
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE",
        "XAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE",
        "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE",
        "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"
      },
      "type": "stdio"
    }
  }
}
  1. For Cursor: Enable Task Master in Settings (Ctrl+Shift+J) → MCP tab → Enable task-master-ai with the toggle

Command Line Installation

# Install globally
npm install -g task-master-ai

# OR install locally within your project
npm install task-master-ai

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Task Master requires at least one AI provider API key. You can use:

  • Anthropic API key (Claude)
  • OpenAI API key
  • Google Gemini API key
  • Perplexity API key (recommended for research)
  • Other supported providers: xAI, OpenRouter, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Groq, Ollama

Alternatively, you can use Claude Code CLI with no API key required.

Initializing in an Editor

After setting up the MCP configuration, initialize Task Master in your editor's AI chat pane:

Initialize taskmaster-ai in my project

Initializing via Command Line

# If installed globally
task-master init

# If installed locally
npx task-master init

Setting Up Your Project Requirements Document (PRD)

Create a detailed PRD at .taskmaster/docs/prd.txt or use the existing scripts/prd.txt for older projects.

A template is available after initialization at .taskmaster/templates/example_prd.txt.

Using Task Master

Editor Chat Commands

# Parse your requirements document
Can you parse my PRD at scripts/prd.txt?

# Get the next task to work on
What's the next task I should work on?

# Implement a specific task
Can you help me implement task 3?

# View multiple tasks
Can you show me tasks 1, 3, and 5?

# Expand a task with more details
Can you help me expand task 4?

# Research latest information
Research the latest best practices for implementing JWT authentication with Node.js

# Research with project context
Research React Query v5 migration strategies for our current API implementation in src/api.js

# Change the AI models used
Change the main, research and fallback models to claude-3-opus-20240229, perplexity-codellama-34b-v2-0 and claude-3-haiku-20240307 respectively.

Command Line Commands

# List all tasks
task-master list

# Show the next task to work on
task-master next

# Show specific task(s)
task-master show 1,3,5

# Research with project context
task-master research "What are the latest best practices for JWT authentication?"

# Generate task files
task-master generate

# Add rules after initialization
task-master rules add windsurf,roo,vscode

Claude Code Support

Task Master supports Claude models through Claude Code CLI without requiring an API key:

# In your editor's chat, switch to Claude Code
Change the main model to claude-code/sonnet

Available models:

  • claude-code/opus
  • claude-code/sonnet

Troubleshooting

If task-master init doesn't respond, try running it with Node directly:

node node_modules/claude-task-master/scripts/init.js

Or clone the repository and run:

git clone https://github.com/eyaltoledano/claude-task-master.git
cd claude-task-master
node scripts/init.js

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "taskmaster-ai" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","--package=task-master-ai","task-master-ai"],"env":{"ANTHROPIC_API_KEY":"YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE","PERPLEXITY_API_KEY":"YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE","OPENAI_API_KEY":"YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE","GOOGLE_API_KEY":"YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE","MISTRAL_API_KEY":"YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE","OPENROUTER_API_KEY":"YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE","XAI_API_KEY":"YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE","AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY":"YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE","OLLAMA_API_KEY":"YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "taskmaster-ai": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "--package=task-master-ai",
                "task-master-ai"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE",
                "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE",
                "OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE",
                "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE",
                "MISTRAL_API_KEY": "YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE",
                "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE",
                "XAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE",
                "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE",
                "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
  • Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "taskmaster-ai": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "--package=task-master-ai",
                "task-master-ai"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE",
                "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE",
                "OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE",
                "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE",
                "MISTRAL_API_KEY": "YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE",
                "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE",
                "XAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE",
                "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE",
                "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect

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