Editor-side clients (Cline, Continue, Cursor extensions, custom agents) use the same MCP wire protocol as Claude Desktop, but they tend to expose configuration more directly — and they often support remote transports that desktop apps don't.
stdio: the local default
Most servers run as a child process over stdio. The client spawns the server, talks to it on stdin/stdout, and tears it down on exit. This is the safest mode — the server only exists while you're using it, and it has no network exposure.
HTTP and SSE: remote servers
Some servers run as long-lived HTTP services. You point your client at a URL instead of a command. This is convenient for shared infrastructure but means the server is always reachable — treat it like any other internal API.
Cline configuration
{
"mcpServers": {
"github": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
"env": { "GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_..." }
}
}
}Cline writes this into its workspace settings; Continue uses a similar shape in its config.json. Most editor clients now share enough vocabulary that the same JSON works in several of them.