Connect Semrush to Cursor
Give Cursor governed access to Semrush’s 23 tools through Runlayer, with identity, policy, scanning, and audit on every call.
Set up
Add Semrush to Cursor in four steps
Admins approve the server once. Everyone in Cursor then gets it through the same governed connection.
- 1
Add Semrush to Runlayer
Semrush isn’t in the Runlayer catalog yet, so an admin adds it by its MCP server URL.
Adding a connector manually - 2
Connect Cursor to Runlayer
Runlayer’s CLI installs the Runlayer Plugin natively in Cursor, and admins can roll it out org-wide with Auto Sync plus a Cursor team rule. With direct tool listing turned on for your deployment, Semrush’s 23 tools show up in Cursor’s own tool list.
Cursor setup guide - 3
Sign in to Semrush
Sign in the way Semrush requires. Runlayer holds the credentials so they stay out of the client’s configuration.
- 4
Use Semrush from Cursor
Semrush’s approved tools appear in Cursor. Every call is checked against policy and recorded.
Tools
23 Semrush tools in Cursor
Runlayer policy decides which of these Cursor users can call.
Audience research
Audience Analytics: visitor profile of a domain — demographics (age, gender, income, education, household size, occupation), audience interests, visitor geography by country, audience overlap between…
Backlink research
Backlink profile analysis: referring domains, anchor texts, authority scores, link growth history, and competitor link comparison.
Backlinks research
Backlink Analytics: for a single domain's link profile — backlinks, referring domains and IPs, anchor texts, geographic and TLD distribution, Authority Score breakdown, domain and referring-domain…
Competitors research
Competitive Research: find who competes with a domain in organic search, paid search, and Google Shopping (PLA); compare keyword overlap and backlink profiles between multiple domains; analyze market…
Domain overview
Get high-level counters for a domain, subdomain, subfolder, or URL — Semrush Rank, keyword/traffic/cost totals, PLA, SERP Features.
Execute report
Execute any Semrush report.
Get report schema
Get a report's parameters.
Keyword research
Keyword Analytics: look up any keyword — search volume, CPC, competition, keyword difficulty, SERP results (organic and paid), related keywords, broad match variations, phrase questions, and ads…
Control
What Runlayer can see and stop in Cursor
Some controls apply to every client at the gateway. Others depend on what Cursor exposes to Runlayer.
Gateway policy (available)
Every Semrush call from Cursor passes through Runlayer, where your policies can allow, alert, mask, or block it.
Audit trail (available)
Each call is recorded with the user, Cursor as the client, the tool, and the policy and scanner decisions.
Client hooks (available)
Capture supported prompts, reasoning, local and MCP tool calls, responses, and scanner decisions in real time.
Stop a call before it runs (available)
Runlayer can deny a tool call before Cursor runs it, including calls to MCP servers.
Block output after it runs (available)
Runlayer can block a tool’s output before Cursor’s model sees it.
Redact output in place (not available)
Cursor cannot take masked output, so Runlayer can block a tool’s output but not mask it. The gateway still applies policy to the call.
In Cursor
- Runlayer cannot tell Agents Window sessions apart from regular IDE sessions.
- The Cursor CLI sends fewer session events than the IDE, but Runlayer’s allow and deny decisions still apply.
Frequently asked questions
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