Cursor Exact Online MCP: why ERP data in your editor?
As a developer or Exact Online consultant, you work with code and data every day. You build integrations, write reports or troubleshoot issues in Exact Online connections. Normally you constantly switch between your code editor, the Exact Online interface and API documentation. With Cursor and Ledger Botje you bring all that data together in one place - directly in your editor.
Cursor is an AI-native code editor that supports the MCP protocol. This means you can ask questions about your Exact Online data while programming, without switching context. This makes your workflow faster and more error-resistant.
Set up Cursor with Ledger Botje MCP
Configuration is simple. Follow the MCP setup guide and choose the steps for Cursor. In short:
- Install Cursor and open the MCP settings.
- Add the Ledger Botje MCP server URL with your authentication credentials.
- Restart Cursor and verify the MCP tools are available.
After configuration you can ask questions about your Exact Online administration directly in the Cursor chat.
Query ERP data while you code
Suppose you are building an integration that processes sales orders. Instead of pulling up the Exact Online API documentation, you ask Cursor: "Show the fields of a sales order for customer Bakkerij Jansen." The AI uses the sales_orders_search tool and immediately shows the current data, including field names and values you can use in your code.
Other examples for developers:
- "Which item codes are active in the electronics category?" - useful when testing import scripts.
- "Give the top 10 suppliers by purchase volume" - handy for building dashboards.
- "How many stock mutations occurred today?" - via the
items_stocktool you can verify whether your sync job is running correctly.
Build reports and analyses from Cursor
Cursor with Ledger Botje is also ideal for quickly prototyping reports. Ask the AI to fetch data and present it directly in your code. For example: "Give a JSON overview of all open purchase orders with supplier name and total amount." You get structured data that you can use directly in your application.
For consultants who create client reports, this is particularly valuable. You can fetch data, transform it and present it without opening Exact Online or making manual exports.
Debug integrations with live data
A common scenario: your integration throws an error, but you do not know whether the problem is in your code or in the Exact Online data. With Cursor and Ledger Botje you simply ask: "Does item XYZ-999 exist in Exact Online?" or "What are the details of customer number 12345?" You validate your assumptions directly with live data, without interrupting your workflow.
Ready to get started? Follow the setup guide and configure Cursor in just a few minutes. Also check the prompt library for more examples of effective developer prompts.
Why this works differently for consultants than for business owners
Most uses of an AI integration are about saving time in the administration. With Cursor it is about something else: you are building or maintaining something around Exact Online, and you need the real data to know whether it holds up.
That is a real difference. You are not asking about your revenue; you are checking whether the administration looks the way your code assumes it looks. A field the documentation calls optional but which is always populated in practice - you only see that in real data.
Three ways this saves time
- Testing assumptions before writing code. "How many sales orders have more than ten lines?" is answered faster than guessed, and determines whether you need pagination.
- Finding test data. An order with a credit line, a customer without a VAT number, an item with batch registration - locating the edge case otherwise costs more time than handling it.
- Checking a report. If a user complains a report is wrong, you verify the underlying figures without logging into their environment.
What to watch
This is not an API replacement. What you see in the editor is meant for investigating, not for building a production integration on. If you are building something that runs day in day out, use the Exact Online API directly - see MCP versus the Exact Online API.
Watch which administration you are querying. If you work for several clients that is a real concern, not a theoretical one. Check which administration is active each session.