Cursor

What is Cursor?

Built as a VS Code fork, it keeps your extensions and keybindings, so switching costs are low compared with learning a terminal agent. Two in-house models do the heavy lifting: Tab predicts your next edit and jumps you there, while Composer handles multi-file changes. The free Hobby tier is thin - limited agent requests - and paid plans bill against a credit pool, so heavy frontier-model use can exceed the sticker price. Install it, import your VS Code profile, and try Tab for a week before paying.

Three things Cursor does best

1. Predicts your next edit, not just text

   Cursor Tab suggests multi-line changes and then moves the cursor to the next spot you are likely to edit, including imports and call sites you would otherwise chase by hand. Cursor trains this completion model in-house and tunes it for latency, so suggestions arrive while you type.

2. Changes many files from one prompt

   Composer, Cursor's in-house agent model, edits across the repository from a plain-language request: it creates files, updates imports, adjusts config, and shows a single diff you step through before applying. Cursor indexes your codebase with embeddings so the agent finds relevant code without you pasting it.

3. Runs agents in the cloud too

   Cloud Agents run in their own VMs, so they build, test, and open pull requests without your laptop online, and can be triggered by GitHub, Slack, Linear, or webhooks. Bugbot, the automated pull-request reviewer, bills as usage on individual plans rather than being included.

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