AI agent coding for ESP-IDF workshop - Assignment 1: Set up your AI coding agent

Assignment steps

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In this assignment, you will install an AI coding agent and connect it to the Espressif Documentation MCP server. By the end, your agent will be able to access current Espressif documentation directly from your development environment.

Before you begin

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This workshop assumes that the ESP-IDF toolchain and extension are already configured. If they are not, complete the ESP-IDF workshop preliminary setup before continuing.

Step 1: Install Cursor IDE or VS Code with Copilot

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We will cover Cursor and GitHub Copilot, but you can use another coding agent for this workshop.

Step 2: Install the Espressif Documentation MCP server

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The Espressif Documentation MCP Server connects your AI agent directly to official, up-to-date Espressif documentation. The agent can use it to look up ESP-IDF APIs, hardware design guidelines, datasheets, and more without relying only on its training data.

You need a GitHub or WeChat account to authenticate with the server.

{
"mcpServers": {
  "espressif-docs": {
    "url": "https://mcp.espressif.com/docs"
  }
}
}

{
"servers": {
  "espressif-docs": {
    "url": "https://mcp.espressif.com/docs"
  }
}
}

Confirm that the Espressif Documentation server appears with a connected status in your IDE’s MCP settings. In Cursor, you can also check from the Agent chat:

/mcp list

If the server is not connected, restart the IDE or re-authenticate from its MCP settings.

Next step

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Now that your coding agent can access current Espressif documentation, learn how agents apply to ESP-IDF development.

AI agents and ESP-IDF

Back to workshop home