# Cursor

Web page: https://academy.memberpress.ai/courses/ai-tool-guides/l3/

Lesson 3 of 4 in [AI Tool Guides: ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor and Grok](https://academy.memberpress.ai/courses/ai-tool-guides/), 10 min.

**What it is**

Cursor is a code editor built around an AI agent. You open a folder or repository, and the agent can search it, read and edit files, run commands and use the web.

**When to pick it**

When you want the agent inside your editor, next to the code, rather than in a terminal or a chat window. It also runs Codex through its IDE extension, if you want both.

**Setup**

1. Download Cursor from cursor.com/download (Mac, Windows or Linux) and sign in with a free Cursor account.
2. File, Open Folder, and open your project.
3. Open the agent with Cmd+I (Ctrl+I on Windows and Linux). Shift+Tab switches modes: Agent makes changes, Ask is read-only, Plan drafts a plan before building, and Debug works through a bug with you.
4. Give it rules. Project rules go in `.cursor/rules` as `.mdc` files, and Cursor also reads `AGENTS.md`. Plain `.md` files in `.cursor/rules` are ignored.
5. List anything the agent shouldn't read in `.cursorignore`.

**A first real task**

In Ask mode: "Explain what this project does and where its main entry point is." Then in Plan mode, ask for one small change, read the plan, and click Build.

**Connect it to your site or data**

Cursor reads MCP servers from `.cursor/mcp.json` in your project, or `~/.cursor/mcp.json` for all projects. A remote server needs only a URL:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memberpress-ai-academy": { "url": "https://academy.memberpress.ai/mcp" }
  }
}
```

On a paid plan, Cloud Agents (once called Background Agents) run the same work on a branch in a cloud machine and push it for review.

Checked against Cursor's docs on 2026-10-14: [Cursor docs](https://cursor.com/docs), [install](https://cursor.com/help/getting-started/install), [Ask mode](https://cursor.com/help/ai-features/ask-mode), [Plan mode](https://cursor.com/help/ai-features/plan-mode), [Debug mode](https://cursor.com/help/ai-features/debug-mode), [agent](https://cursor.com/docs/agent/overview), [rules](https://cursor.com/docs/context/rules), [ignore file](https://cursor.com/docs/reference/ignore-file), [MCP](https://cursor.com/docs/context/mcp), [Cloud Agents](https://cursor.com/docs/cloud-agent).

## Try these prompts

- Write a .cursor/rules file for this project that always applies: our stack, how we name things, and what never to touch.
- In Plan mode, plan how to add a members-only page to this site. List the files you'd change and why.

Next: [Grok, the xAI API and Grok bots](https://academy.memberpress.ai/courses/ai-tool-guides/l4/)