Cursor CLI & IDE Guide

Cursor is an AI-first code editor (fork of VS Code) with deep agent, inline edit, and multi-file reasoning capabilities. It runs as a desktop IDE with a companion CLI for opening projects from the terminal.

Official docs: https://docs.cursor.com Download: https://www.cursor.com/download

Installation

# macOS (download .dmg from cursor.com, or via Homebrew)
brew install --cask cursor

# The `cursor` CLI is installed automatically with the desktop app
# macOS: add to PATH via Command Palette → "Install 'cursor' command in PATH"

Installed on: Tabitha (and any machine with Cursor desktop app)

CLI Usage

# Open current directory in Cursor
cursor .

# Open a specific file or folder
cursor /path/to/project
cursor src/components/Button.tsx

# Open a Gitea-cloned repo
git clone http://100.79.253.19:3000/jacob-mathison/aarete-doczyai-app.git
cursor aarete-doczyai-app/

# Reuse existing window
cursor --reuse-window .

# New window
cursor --new-window .

Agent Mode

Cursor's Agent mode (formerly Composer) lets you give multi-step tasks in natural language. It reads and edits across files, runs terminal commands, and can loop until the task is done.

Open Agent: Cmd+I (or Ctrl+I on Windows/Linux)

# Example agent prompts:
"Add form validation to the login page and write tests for it"
"Refactor the API calls to use a centralized fetch wrapper"
"Fix all TypeScript errors in the project"

Inline Edit

Quick single-location edits without opening Agent:

Trigger: Cmd+K on selected code

# Example inline prompts:
"Add error handling"
"Convert to async/await"
"Add JSDoc comment"

Rules (Project Instructions)

Cursor reads .cursorrules (legacy) or cursor/rules/ directory for project-specific AI instructions. These persist across sessions and shape how the AI behaves in your codebase.

Create .cursorrules at project root:

# aarete-doczyai-app Cursor Rules

- TypeScript strict mode is required
- Use React functional components with hooks only
- API calls go through lib/api — never fetch() directly in components
- Run `npm run lint && npm run test:ci` before considering a task done
- This project is on a local Gitea: http://100.79.253.19:3000/jacob-mathison/aarete-doczyai-app

MCP in Cursor

Cursor supports MCP servers for extending AI capabilities. Configure in ~/.cursor/mcp.json or via Settings → MCP.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": { "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<your-pat>" }
    },
    "postgres": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres", "postgresql://postgres:pass@127.0.0.1:5432/silma"]
    }
  }
}

Using Local LLMs in Cursor

Cursor supports custom OpenAI-compatible model endpoints:

Open Settings → Models → Add Model
Set base URL to http://localhost:8080/v1 (Gemma-4-E4B) or http://localhost:8081/v1 (Gemma-4-26B)
Set API key to local (required but ignored by llama.cpp)
Name the model gemma-4-e4b or gemma-4-26b

See tools/local-llm.llm.md for full local LLM details and endpoints.

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	macOS	Windows/Linux
Open Agent	`Cmd+I`	`Ctrl+I`
Inline Edit	`Cmd+K`	`Ctrl+K`
Chat panel	`Cmd+L`	`Ctrl+L`
Command Palette	`Cmd+Shift+P`	`Ctrl+Shift+P`
Terminal	Ctrl+`	Ctrl+`
File search	`Cmd+P`	`Ctrl+P`
Symbol search	`Cmd+T`	`Ctrl+T`

Working with Gitea Repos in Cursor

# Clone from local Gitea
git clone http://jacob-mathison:<PAT>@100.79.253.19:3000/jacob-mathison/aarete-doczyai-app.git
cursor aarete-doczyai-app/

# Or clone first, configure remote without PAT in URL
git clone http://100.79.253.19:3000/jacob-mathison/aarete-doczyai-app.git
cd aarete-doczyai-app
git config credential.helper store
cursor .

Cursor's Source Control panel works with local Gitea repos the same as GitHub — commit, push, pull, branch all work normally.

Tips for This Environment

The Claude Code extension for Cursor is available: search "Claude Code" in Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X)
For AI-heavy tasks, Agent mode + a good .cursorrules file beats ad-hoc prompts every time
Cursor indexes your codebase on first open — give it a minute on large repos
Use @file, @folder, @symbol mentions in Agent to scope context precisely
@docs lets you pull in external documentation URLs as context mid-chat

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