Temporal Cortex MCP

v0.9.1 · March 2026 · Changelog · Website: temporal-cortex.com

Give any AI agent autonomous scheduling capabilities. Temporal Cortex is open scheduling infrastructure that lets any AI agent schedule reliably — whether the other person has an AI agent or not, uses Google Calendar or Outlook, or responds instantly or days later. 18 tools across 5 layers handle contact resolution, temporal reasoning, cross-provider availability, and atomic booking. Accessible via MCP, A2A, REST, and browser. Powered by Truth Engine. Install: npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp.

<a href="https://insiders.vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name=temporal-cortex-mcp&inputs=%7B%22google_client_id%22%3A%22%22%2C%22google_client_secret%22%3A%22%22%7D&config=%7B%22command%22%3A%22npx%22%2C%22args%22%3A%5B%22-y%22%2C%22%40temporal-cortex%2Fcortex-mcp%22%5D%2C%22env%22%3A%7B%22GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID%22%3A%22%24%7Binput%3Agoogle_client_id%7D%22%2C%22GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET%22%3A%22%24%7Binput%3Agoogle_client_secret%7D%22%7D%7D"></a>
<a href="https://cursor.com/install-mcp?name=temporal-cortex&config=eyJjb21tYW5kIjoibnB4IiwiYXJncyI6WyIteSIsIkB0ZW1wb3JhbC1jb3J0ZXgvY29ydGV4LW1jcCJdLCJlbnYiOnsiR09PR0xFX0NMSUVOVF9JRCI6InlvdXItY2xpZW50LWlkLmFwcHMuZ29vZ2xldXNlcmNvbnRlbnQuY29tIiwiR09PR0xFX0NMSUVOVF9TRUNSRVQiOiJ5b3VyLWNsaWVudC1zZWNyZXQifX0%3D"></a>

Two ways to use Temporal Cortex

For individuals

Connect your calendars. Your AI agent handles the rest — checking availability, resolving time zones, and booking meetings without double-booking. Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, OpenClaw, Manus, and any MCP-compatible AI client.

npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp setup

The setup wizard walks you through provider authentication, timezone configuration, and MCP client setup interactively. You'll be scheduling in under a minute.

Or use the managed Platform — no Node.js required. Sign up at app.temporal-cortex.com, connect your calendars via OAuth, and add a single MCP config with your API key.

For developers

Add scheduling to your AI agent or product. 18 tools across 5 layers, 4 protocols (MCP, A2A, REST, Browser), atomic booking with Two-Phase Commit, and deterministic temporal computation powered by Truth Engine.

- Local MCP server: npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp — full tool suite, zero infrastructure
- Platform REST API: app.temporal-cortex.com — managed hosting, API keys, usage dashboard, Open Scheduling network
- Framework integrations: LangGraph, CrewAI, OpenAI Agents SDK
- REST API reference: temporal-cortex.com/docs/rest-api

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Why do AI agents fail at calendar tasks?

Even the latest LLMs — GPT-5, Claude, Gemini — score below 50% on temporal reasoning tasks (OOLONG benchmark). Earlier models scored as low as 29% on scheduling and 13% on duration calculations (Test of Time, ICLR 2025). Ask "Schedule for next Tuesday at 2pm" and it picks the wrong Tuesday. Ask "Am I free at 3pm?" and it checks the wrong timezone. Then it double-books your calendar.

Most calendar tools for AI agents are thin CRUD wrappers that pass these failures through to a single calendar provider — no temporal awareness, no conflict detection, no safety net.

What makes Temporal Cortex different?

- Temporal awareness — Agents call get_temporal_context to know the actual time and timezone. resolve_datetime turns "next Tuesday at 2pm" into a precise RFC 3339 timestamp. No hallucination.
- Atomic booking — Lock the time slot, verify no conflicts exist, then write. Two agents booking the same 2pm slot? Exactly one succeeds. The other gets a clear error. No double-bookings.
- Computed availability — Merges free/busy data across multiple calendars into a single unified view. The AI sees actual availability, not a raw dump of events to misinterpret.
- Deterministic RRULE expansion — Handles DST transitions, BYSETPOS=-1 (last weekday of month), EXDATE with timezones, leap year recurrences, and INTERVAL>1 with BYDAY. Powered by Truth Engine, not LLM inference.
- Token-efficient output — TOON format compresses calendar data by ~40% fewer tokens than standard JSON, reducing costs and context window usage. TOON is the default output format for all data tools (list_calendars, list_events, find_free_slots, expand_rrule, get_availability). JSON is available via explicit format: "json".

What do I need to run Temporal Cortex?

- Node.js 18+ (for npx to download and run the binary) or Docker
- At least one calendar provider:
- Google Calendar — requires Google OAuth credentials
- Microsoft Outlook — requires Azure AD app registration (MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID)
- CalDAV (iCloud, Fastmail, etc.) — requires an app-specific password

How do I install Temporal Cortex?

The fastest way to get started:

npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp setup

The cortex-mcp setup wizard walks you through provider authentication, timezone configuration, and MCP client setup interactively. See the First Run Guide for a detailed walkthrough.

Or set up manually in 3 steps:

1. Install prerequisites — Node.js 18+ (or Docker) and at least one calendar provider (Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or CalDAV).
2. Add the MCP configuration to your AI client's config file (see client-specific examples below).
3. Run the auth flow — npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp auth google (or outlook / caldav). This authenticates and configures timezone, week start, and telemetry preferences.

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "temporal-cortex": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com",
        "GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret",
        "TIMEZONE": "America/New_York"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to Cursor's MCP settings (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "temporal-cortex": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com",
        "GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret",
        "TIMEZONE": "America/New_York"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to Windsurf's MCP config (~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "temporal-cortex": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com",
        "GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret",
        "TIMEZONE": "America/New_York"
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker

docker run --rm -i \
  -e GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID="your-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com" \
  -e GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET="your-client-secret" \
  -e TIMEZONE="America/New_York" \
  -v ~/.config/temporal-cortex:/root/.config/temporal-cortex \
  cortex-mcp

Build the image first: docker build -t cortex-mcp . (or build directly from the repo: docker build -t cortex-mcp https://github.com/temporal-cortex/mcp.git).

> Need help with provider credentials? See the setup guides: Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, CalDAV (iCloud/Fastmail). For a complete reference of all environment variables and configuration options, see the Configuration Guide.

How do I verify the installation?

SHA256 checksums are published with every GitHub Release and embedded in the npm package as checksums.json for automatic postinstall verification. The postinstall script downloads the platform-specific binary and compares its SHA256 hash against the expected checksum in checksums.json. On mismatch, installation fails with an error — the binary is not installed and the error message includes both the expected and actual hashes.

Verify manually:

```bash