Can I update an MCP server without restarting my editor?

In VS Code, click Restart next to the server in .vscode/mcp.json without a full reload. In Cursor, toggle the server off and on in Settings → MCP. In Windsurf, click Refresh in the hammer-icon panel. Claude Code picks up changes on the next session start.

What if I don't know the current version?

Check the args array in your config file. If no version is pinned, run npm view @your-package version in a terminal to see the latest published release and compare it to what is running.

How do I know when a new version is available?

Run npm view @package/name version to compare the latest published release against your pinned version. Most MCP servers publish on npm and maintain a GitHub releases page.

Is it safe to always use @latest?

For a personal single-machine setup it is usually fine. For a config committed to a shared repo it is risky: teammates may hit the npm cache at different times and end up on different server versions, producing inconsistent behavior.

How to Update an MCP Server

To update an MCP server, bump the pinned version number in your config file and restart the server. In Cursor, edit .cursor/mcp.json; in VS Code, edit .vscode/mcp.json; in Claude Code, run claude mcp remove then claude mcp add with the new version. If you used @latest instead of a pinned version, npx already fetches the newest release on each run.

Updating an MCP server is a one-line config edit and a restart. Here is the exact change for every major editor and why pinning a specific version protects against silent breaking changes.