Cursor

An AI-assisted code editor (VS Code fork) with autonomous coding agents, chat, and a CLI for building and editing software.

Works with AI agents:llms.txt
Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

Cursor is a code editor built on the VS Code codebase in which an AI agent is the main way of working: you describe a change, and the agent reads the repository, plans, edits files and runs terminal commands while you review the diffs. It is aimed at developers who want agent-driven coding without leaving a familiar editor.

On first launch it can import your VS Code extensions, themes, settings and keybindings. You choose a model per task from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others, or Cursor's own Composer models, and shape the agent's behaviour with rules, skills, hooks and MCP servers. The same agent is available in the terminal through the Cursor CLI, which also has a non-interactive mode for scripts and CI, and inside JetBrains IDEs through the Agent Client Protocol.

Cloud agents run in isolated Ubuntu VMs with your cloned repositories, dependencies and secrets, so several tasks can run in parallel and come back as pull requests; you can start them from the editor, the web, the iOS app, Slack, or a comment on GitHub or Linear. Privacy Mode, available on every plan, keeps your code out of model training. Cursor holds a SOC 2 Type II attestation and ISO 27001 certification.

Cursor is a hosted service: AI requests go through Cursor to the model providers, and there is no self-hosted or offline edition. Your own API keys work only for chat models, as Tab completion always uses Cursor's models, and the JetBrains integration requires a paid plan.

Where it fits

How Cursor itself is built

3 tools, from its own code, website and Product Hunt page.

Who uses it

538 makers' products, each linked to the source that shows it.

The maker says so 537Subprocessor list 1How evidence is collected →
giselleGiselle is an open-source tool for building and running AI workflows in a visual node ed…

“As a designer on the team, Cursor was surprisingly one of the most impactful tools while building Giselle. It lowered the friction between “I have a design intention” and “this is how it’s actually implemented.” Being able to read, tweak, and question real code in-context helped me participate earlier and more concretely in technical decisions — not just at the handoff stage. It didn’t turn me into an engineer, but it made collaboration much tighter.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
LangfuseOpen-source LLM engineering platform for tracing, evaluation, prompt management and expe…

“Cursor let's us ship product and documentation 10x faster”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
NovuNotification infrastructure for sending multi-channel messages (email, in-app, SMS, chat…

“Getting in the zone and vibe coding!”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
papermarkOpen-source document sharing and virtual data room with viewer analytics and custom doma…

“Cursor never leaves my dock and never sleeps. Best work I do, whether I'm at my computer or on my phone. Worth every penny of the $200 sub.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
Blink.newAI app builder that generates web apps from a prompt, with authentication, database, edg…

“Our favorite AI IDE that boosts productivity for the whole team.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
SmythOSPlatform for building and deploying AI agents, visually or by describing them to an assi…

“In 2024, we shifted our engineering team to cursor and an AI-first mentality. If you know how to do it without AI, you should use AI to do it for you. Why? Because this is the best way to make sure you understand the code and what it's doing, but you'll do it faster. Too many of our developers were stuck in that mentality. The composer feature of Cursor is really helpful. We combine it with SmythOS agent sentinel, which connects our github to clickup and knowledge base along with AI LLMs to reason about our entire project. Sentinel is trained to write perfect composer specifications for a given ticket, so that Cursor can do its magic.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
OmnifactPrivacy First AI Chat Assistants for Businesses

“Thanks a lot for making coding so much more efficient and seamless. Save countless hours developing Omnifact”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
FlexpriceUsage-based pricing and billing for developers

“Our collaborative AI coding assistant that helped us ship Flexprice faster.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
UXAudit.NowAudit, Benchmark, Optimize Your UX with Insights

“Our go-to AI-powered coding assistant. Helped us ship smarter and debug faster, especially at 2 AM 😅”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
Chat DataPowerful AI Chatbot Offering Exceptional Customization

“This is the coding editor we use to develop our products. It's quite convenient.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
MindPalMindPal is a no-code platform for turning a person's expertise into AI agents and multi-…

“Cursor is part of our engineering team!”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
Pretty PromptChrome extension that rewrites text into more structured prompts for AI chatbots such as…

“Great AI code editor, helps us ship faster, and now both of us founders, can ship code into Production!”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
IFTTTEvery thing works better together

“Cursor has become the go-to AI code editor for developers who want to move faster without sacrificing quality. We chose it because the best dev tools should connect to the rest of your stack.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
ReloopVideo studio built for small teams

“The AI Code Editor Developing in 2026 is all about AI too. Cursor is probably the best tool for that The project wasn't just vibes-coded, performance was crucial and you had to keep a close eye on things but Cursor let us be way more efficient”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
THEO GrowthPositioning Intelligence for brand strategists

“Building systematic context engineering required precision coding - and Cursor's AI-powered development made our complex browser extension and API integrations possible. From context processing algorithms to seamless ChatGPT/Claude integration, Cursor helped us ship THEO 2.0's advanced features faster than we ever imagined.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
TriqaiTurn messy bank transactions into clean, structured data

“We used Cursor during early development for quickly iterating and creating prototypes. This helped us a lot creating and shaping how Triqai is today.”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗
Documentation.AIBuild and update product documentation effortlessly with AI

“Cursor not only helped as a coding agent but also help generate our own documentation as part of git workflows”

AI Coding AssistantsMaker says so · source ↗

What makers say

347 makers on why they use Cursor, in their own words on Product Hunt.

In 2024, we shifted our engineering team to cursor and an AI-first mentality. If you know how to do it without AI, you should use AI to do it for you. Why? Because this is the best way to make sure you understand the code and what it's doing, but you'll do it faster. Too many of our developers were stuck in that mentality. The composer feature of Cursor is really helpful. We combine it with SmythOS agent sentinel, which connects our github to clickup and knowledge base along with AI LLMs to reason about our entire project. Sentinel is trained to write perfect composer specifications for a given ticket, so that Cursor can do its magic.
SmythOSSep 2026 ↗
We’ve fully integrated Cursor into our dev workflow- it's an insane productivity enhancer when it comes to writing, debugging, and understanding code faster. Before Cursor, we tried tools like GitHub Copilot and a few others. Copilot was helpful for autocomplete, but Cursor feels more like a full assistant—understanding broader context, offering file-aware suggestions, and supporting full conversation threads tied to your actual code. If you’re building fast and want to stay in flow, we can’t recommend Cursor enough. It’s a superpower for any developer. Amazing work by the small and mighty cursor team.
RecallSep 2026 ↗
We've been using Cursor, and we really appreciate how well the interaction is designed. The chat experience feels natural, and the way suggestions are presented aligns perfectly with how we work as developers. Instead of overwhelming us with changes, it provides diffs that we can choose to apply or not, keeping me in control of the process. So far, I’ve found it especially useful for refactoring, prototyping, and testing—helping us move faster while maintaining quality. Overall, it feels like a thoughtful and developer-friendly tool that integrates seamlessly into our workflow.
Breyta.aiSep 2026 ↗
"As a solo founder managing 8+ SaaS projects, Cursor is my unfair advantage. I chose it for: AI Native Workflow: It’s not just an editor with a plugin; it’s built around the AI, which makes refactoring complex BI logic in MetricMap 10x faster. Codebase Context: The way it understands the entire project structure helps me maintain consistency across my full-stack architecture. Rapid Prototyping: It allowed me to move from idea to a working analytics dashboard in record time, handling the boilerplate so I could focus on the unique features.
MetricMapMar 2026 ↗
Cursor's AI-powered code completion and chat features were game-changers for building GTA Radio. The ability to quickly iterate on the radio wheel interface, debug PWA functionality, and implement media session controls would have taken much longer with a traditional editor. The AI assistant helped me navigate Flask routing, JavaScript audio APIs, and PWA manifest configurations seamlessly. It's like having a pair programming partner that never gets tired and knows the entire web development ecosystem.
GTA RadioSep 2026 ↗

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises, with how Product Hunt tags its reviews.

Most loved
  • Tab completion is fast and accurate, and stays useful when hand-editing code or when agents fall short on large tasks. PHHNHN 2PH 2
  • Changes arrive as reviewable diffs in the editor, keeping the developer in control in bite-size steps. PHHNHN 2PH 2
  • Chatting with the codebase in context helps developers navigate and understand unfamiliar code. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
  • Configuring MCP servers and toggling their tools is straightforward. PHPH 2PH 3
Watch-outs
  • The subscription feels pricey next to Claude or Codex plugins, and premium model requests add per-use costs. HNHN 2
  • The agent can claim a bug is fixed without seeing the running app, so output has to be checked and tested by hand. HNHN 2
On Product Hunt 5.0★ · 956 reviews
seamless integration 15intelligent code suggestions 13code generation 10pair programming 10AI autocomplete 9context aware 9fast performance 9VS Code integration 5context aware 2occasional crashes 2
Read the reviews on Product Hunt ↗

Reliability and open issues

Incidents on its status page50+ in the last 90 days, 15 major · 50+ in the last yearFrom its own status page, 2026-10-02. Vendors decide what they post; one page can cover several products.

Who switches

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "X to Y" — real code changes moving a project from one tool to another, by developers in general. Open a row to see the pull requests.

OpenAI Codex → Cursor12 PRs
Claude Code → Cursor10 PRs
GitHub Copilot → Cursor8 PRs
Cursor → Claude Code49 PRs
Cursor → OpenAI Codex16 PRs
Cursor → OpenCode14 PRs

Alternatives to Cursor

All alternatives by situation →

On Product Hunt, people weigh it against: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf), Kilo Code, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity, Augment Code, Cline.

Questions makers ask about Cursor

Can I bring my VS Code setup with me?

Yes. A one-click import in Cursor's settings copies your VS Code extensions, themes, settings and keybindings, and you can also import an exported VS Code profile. source ↗

Can I use Cursor's agent in IntelliJ, PyCharm or WebStorm?

Yes, through the Agent Client Protocol. You need a paid Cursor plan and a JetBrains IDE (2025.1 or later) with the AI Assistant plugin, then add Cursor from the ACP registry in the AI Chat panel. source ↗

Is my code used to train models?

Not if Privacy Mode is on. Anyone on a free or paid plan can turn it on, team admins can enforce it, and Cursor backs it with contractual and technical controls with its model providers. source ↗

Does Cursor store my code on its servers?

Only for cloud agents, which keep encrypted copies of the repositories they work on while the agent runs and delete them afterwards. If your policy forbids storing code, you can leave cloud agents off and still use the other features. source ↗

Can I use my own OpenAI or Anthropic API key?

Yes, for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Azure OpenAI and AWS Bedrock. Keys only apply to chat models; Tab completion keeps using Cursor's built-in models. source ↗

Can cloud agents run on our own machines?

Partly. Self-Hosted Machines run the agent's tool calls, checkout and commands on hardware you control, but the agent loop and model inference still run in Cursor's cloud. source ↗

Can I keep data in a specific region?

US-only data residency for inference, processing and storage is available to Enterprise customers, limited to eligible models. EU inference-only coverage is available on request. source ↗

Is Cursor free?

Yes — there is a free tier a small product can run on; paid use starts at $20/mo. source ↗

Is Cursor open source or self-hostable?

Not open source, and hosted only.

Can AI coding agents work with Cursor?

It serves an llms.txt docs index.

Who uses Cursor?

538 makers' products we track, each with a source. source ↗