REA not showing up in your AI agent after setup

What you see

REA isn't in your agent's tool list or MCP settings, or the agent says it has no REA tools.

The error

{"name": "registration:cursor", "ok": false, "detail": "~/.cursor/mcp.json", "remediation": "Run rea setup to refresh this registration, then restart the client."}

{"name": "registration:claude_desktop", "ok": false, "detail": "~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json", "remediation": "Quit Claude Desktop fully, run rea setup to refresh this registration, then start Claude Desktop again. A running Claude Desktop can rewrite its configuration from memory and drop the registration."}

Tested 2026-10-27 on macOS 15.6.1 with REA 6.8.0. Output from a machine where REA wasn't registered yet.

Why it happens

Usually one of two things: REA isn't registered with this agent (it wasn't selected or the change wasn't approved during setup), or it is registered but the agent hasn't been restarted.

Claude Desktop has one more: if it was running during setup, it can rewrite its configuration from memory and drop the REA entry.

How to fix it

1. Check this agent's registration (replace cursor with your agent's id):

   TerminalCopy

   npx rea-agents doctor --client cursor --json

2. If the registration:… check fails, run setup for that agent and approve the change. Quit Claude Desktop fully first:

   TerminalCopy

   npx rea-agents setup --client cursor

3. Restart the agent fully. Closing the window isn't enough; quit from the menu and open it again.

4. Doctor checks the configuration files, not the live connection. If doctor passes but the agent still has no REA tools, a desktop agent may have a different PATH than your terminal: check the agent's MCP error log and Launchers and PATH.