Protocol Studio

Design health and biology protocols for Hurdle's managed runtime. Visual editing, AI assistance, and deploy-ready output.

Getting Started

Install from the VS Code Marketplace or search "Protocol Studio" in the Extensions sidebar
Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P) > Protocol Studio: Initialize Project
Restart Cursor/VS Code when prompted

The extension creates a workflows/ directory and configures the MCP connection automatically.

Configuration

Open Settings (Cmd+,) and search "Protocol Studio" to configure:

Setting	Description	Required
Partner API Key	Enables node catalog and order validation. Get one from the Hurdle dashboard (Settings > Developer > API Keys).	Recommended
Internal API Key	Admin API key for questionnaire and admin endpoints (used at build time).	Recommended
Environment	`production` (default) or `staging`	No

The extension writes these into .cursor/mcp.json automatically when you initialize a project.

Workflow Lifecycle

Create — Command Palette > Protocol Studio: New Protocol — choose a type, creates intent files
Document — Write clinical intent markdown in workflows/in_progress/<slug>/current/
Configure — Add node config files in workflows/in_progress/<slug>/config/
Build — Command Palette > Protocol Studio: Build — compiles to compiled/<slug>.workflow.json
Preview — Click the eye icon in the editor title bar on any .workflow.json file
Validate — Cmd+Shift+V on a .workflow.json file, or Command Palette > Validate Protocol
Pre-publish check — Command Palette > Protocol Studio: Lifecycle: Pre-Publish Check — runs 5 validation gates
Publish — Command Palette > Protocol Studio: Lifecycle: Publish — creates an immutable versioned release

MCP Tools

Protocol Studio includes an MCP server that gives your AI assistant (Cursor, Claude Desktop) 26 tools for workflow authoring:

Category	Tools
Discovery	`list_workflows`, `get_workflow`, `get_node_catalog`, `get_product_catalog`
Creation	`create_workflow`
Building	`build_workflow`, `validate_workflow`, `extract_workflow_config`, `validate_workflow_config`, `analyze_intent_structure`, `smart_extract_configs`, `validate_spec`
Lifecycle	`check_workflow_drift`, `acknowledge_drift`, `sync_to_source`, `pre_publish_check`, `publish_workflow`, `list_published_versions`
Platform	`publish_to_platform`, `list_platform_workflows`, `get_platform_workflow`, `update_workflow_status`
Auth	`get_auth_status`, `request_auth`, `sign_out`
Setup	`setup_cursor_agents`

Manual MCP Setup

The extension configures MCP automatically on initialization. If you need to set it up manually (e.g., for Claude Desktop), add this to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "protocol-studio": {
      "url": "https://mcp.portkey.ai/protocol-studio-production/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "x-portkey-api-key": "1qYbjlGZu8WVlNE/ThUULYAAu8Y+",
        "X-Partner-Api-Key": "<your-key-from-hurdle-dashboard>",
        "X-Internal-Api-Key": "<your-internal-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

For Claude Desktop on macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

License

MIT

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