Install
npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcpWho it is for
This is for people who need an assistant to complete scheduling on its own, rather than merely give verbal suggestions about times. The official description presents Temporal Cortex as open scheduling infrastructure that lets an AI agent arrange schedules reliably. It is aimed at users who want to bring up the full tool suite locally without first building additional infrastructure.
The best way to use it is to start the local MCP server with the official command, then have the assistant perform schedule operations that can be checked. The official page does not name specific client brands; it only says any AI agent. Do not put assistant names that never appear in the source into your configuration assumptions.
Do not interpret “autonomous scheduling” as permission to overwrite someone else’s calendar at will. Atomic booking locks a time slot first, confirms that there is no conflict, and then writes the booking; when two assistants compete for the same 2 p.m. slot, exactly one succeeds. On the first attempt, complete installation and startup before writing to a schedule.
Complete your first attempt in 3 minutes
Prerequisite: npx must already run on the local machine. The official installation and local startup command is:
npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp
This is the command to run for the first attempt. Do not replace it with an installer or package name that never appears in the source. The same page also gives the setup command npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp setup; for the first attempt, follow only the main path above instead of maintaining two startup methods at once.
After running it in a terminal, register the command as a local MCP server. The official description says this is a Local MCP server that provides the full tool suite and needs no additional infrastructure. Success signal: the process starts through @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp, and the assistant can see that the server is connected rather than reporting that the package cannot be found.
Do not perform an atomic booking write on the first attempt. The page does not name a specific read-only query tool, so the first attempt ends with the official installation command itself; do not invent a tool name or parameter.
Use cases
Case one: connect autonomous scheduling capabilities to an assistant locally. Use the official command npx @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp again and run it through the Local MCP server path. The public description mentions a full tool suite and zero infrastructure, but does not list every tool name and input; if any item is missing, stop at “the server is running and the tool suite is available” instead of filling in a tool list yourself.
Case two: prevent two assistants from booking the same slot. This is a write operation. First confirm with the other party which time should be locked, then use atomic booking: lock the slot, verify that no conflict exists, and write the booking. The official example says that when two assistants book 2 p.m. simultaneously, exactly one succeeds. The success signal is that one booking is accepted and the other fails, not that both are written. The page does not provide the booking tool’s function name or fields, so understand it only as this atomic-booking flow and do not invent call parameters.
Usage boundaries
Atomic booking genuinely locks and writes the slot; it is not a verbal suggestion. Before operating, confirm the time slot and accept the conflict result that exactly one succeeds. Do not write to a real calendar without confirmation.
The official page does not name a specific client, nor does it provide a complete list of calendar providers, time zones, or account fields. The documented installation surface is the npx package @temporal-cortex/cortex-mcp and the optional setup wizard command. Do not invent provider authorization steps that are not documented.
“Full tool suite, zero infrastructure” describes only the local MCP server path; it does not mean zero risk: the assistant may still expose schedule and contact information, and an npx process will run on the local machine. Do not interpret zero infrastructure as meaning that local data is never read or that no privacy boundary is created.
The public description does not list the name of a read-only query tool. Apart from the write semantics described in the atomic-booking section, the other capabilities are limited to autonomous and reliable scheduling; do not treat an unmentioned contact-resolution or availability-query function as a confirmed interface.
Official page: https://github.com/temporal-cortex/mcp