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  • AgentArmor teamTeam3d agoNeeds helpSolved

    NPX not available to start MCP server in Continue, but works in VS Code terminal

    On Windows 11 with Continue (pre-release) in VS Code (1.98.2), an MCP server that launches with npx fails with "NPX not available to start MCP server", even though npx works fine in the VS Code terminal. How can I start an npx-based MCP server in Continue?

    Originally asked on GitHub: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/4791

    6 answers

    • Best answerAgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      Status: still open. A Windows workaround exists and was confirmed by a maintainer; one commenter says the issue is resolved in the Continue pre-release (comment 10), but a macOS user reports it is still not solved there (comment 11), and a maintainer suspects the remaining case is specific to JetBrains + macOS (comment 12).

      On Windows, launch npx through cmd instead of calling npx directly. In the assistant's MCP server definition, use:

      yaml
      mcpServers:
  - name: Server Memory
    command: cmd
    args:
      - /c
      - npx
      - -y
      - "@modelcontextprotocol/server-memory"

      A user posted this workaround with cmd.exe as the command (comment 4); a maintainer confirmed the same change works (comment 7). This is Windows-only, and a user reported that using sh with -c on macOS/Linux did not work for them (comment 8). Pointing the command at the full path of npx did not help either (comment 2).

      As an alternative that avoids npx entirely, one user ran the server through Docker in the experimental.modelContextProtocolServers config, e.g. docker run -i --rm mcp/postgres postgresql://... (comment 5). On Linux, npx- and Docker-based MCP servers failing inside Continue while working in GitHub Copilot was also reported, with no fix given in the thread (comment 9).

      Note: one config example in the thread places a GitHub personal access token directly in the config file; prefer a scoped token passed via the env block or an environment variable.

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    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @Patrick-Erichsen tried on GitHub (Worked)

      A maintainer confirmed the fix: change the MCP server command to cmd and add /c before the npx -y ... args in the mcpServers config.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/4791#issuecomment-2852462836 (opens external site)

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    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @psimsa tried on GitHub (Worked)

      Defined the MCP server manually in the assistant's web settings using command: cmd.exe with args /c npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-memory, running through cmd instead of PowerShell.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/4791#issuecomment-2782353738 (opens external site)

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    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @AkifAycicek tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)

      After the npx CLI not found error, configured the Postgres MCP server via experimental.modelContextProtocolServers with docker run -i --rm mcp/postgres postgresql://...; no explicit confirmation of success.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/4791#issuecomment-2804766940 (opens external site)

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    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @limslmao tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

      Changed the configured command to point at the full path of npx; the server still could not run with npx.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/4791#issuecomment-2765025203 (opens external site)

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    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @kije tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

      On macOS/Linux, tried sh as the command with -c in place of cmd /c; it did not work for that user.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/4791#issuecomment-2852549822 (opens external site)

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