[HN Gopher] Cursor CLI
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       Cursor CLI
        
       Author : gonzalovargas
       Score  : 112 points
       Date   : 2025-08-07 20:53 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (cursor.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (cursor.com)
        
       | unsupp0rted wrote:
       | What's the benefit of this compared to the IDE? To be more like
       | Claude Code?
        
         | sblawrie wrote:
         | You can spin up the Cursor CLI inside the terminal of your IDE
         | of choice and not be tethered to Claude's models.
        
           | zaphirplane wrote:
           | Is there a better agent than the anthropic one
        
         | jstummbillig wrote:
         | I am so curious to know. Why is Cursor not just putting
         | whatever this supposedly does better into... Cursor?
        
           | jonplackett wrote:
           | To compete with Claude code
        
             | jstummbillig wrote:
             | They are competing with Claude Code already. The
             | competition is not over who can built the nicest CLI.
        
           | anthonypasq wrote:
           | i dont think it actually does anything better than the chat
           | window in the editor. its strictly worse tbh. it just lets
           | you not be tied to a VSCode interface for editing.im sure
           | Jetbrains diehards would very much appreciate this, but
           | honestly i will find it hard to utilize given the fact
           | Cursor's tab auto-complete is so amazing.
        
         | bangaladore wrote:
         | Many of these companies are realizing that mainline VSCode is a
         | moat of sorts. I and many people I know won't use any of these
         | that require forking VSCode.
         | 
         | With the benefit that you can also pull in people who don't
         | like using VSCode such as people who use Jetbrains or terminal
         | based code editors.
        
         | gorjusborg wrote:
         | Flip your thinking around for a second and consider why an IDE
         | is required for an agent that codes for you?
         | 
         | The IDE/editor is for me, the agent doesn't need it. That also
         | means I am not forced to used whatever imperfect forked IDE the
         | agent is implemented against.
        
           | worldsayshi wrote:
           | > why an IDE is required for an agent that codes for you
           | 
           | Because the agents aren't yet good enough for a hands off
           | experience. You have to continuously monitor what it does if
           | you want a passable code base.
        
             | tsvetkov wrote:
             | Sure, but monitoring, reviewing and steering does not
             | really require modern IDEs in their current form. Also, I'm
             | sure agents can benefit from parts of IDE functionality
             | (navigation, static analysis, integration with build tools,
             | codebase indexing, ...), but they sure don't need the UI.
             | And without UI those parts can become simpler, more
             | composable and more portable (being compatible with
             | multiple agent tools). IMO another way to think about CLI
             | agentic coding tools as of new form of IDEs.
        
           | stavros wrote:
           | I don't really need an IDE, but I do need a great code review
           | interface.
        
             | Xenoamorphous wrote:
             | As someone who hasn't used Claude Code yet, can't you
             | configure it somehow to use a different tool of your
             | liking, or it has to be in the cli?
        
       | phren0logy wrote:
       | Holy moly. I did not see that coming, but it makes sense. I'm
       | enjoying the terminal-based coding agents way more than I ever
       | would have expected. I can keep one spinning in the background
       | while I do #dayjob, and as a bonus I feel like a haX0r.
       | 
       | 2025 is the year of the terminal, apparently?
       | 
       | For my prototype purposes, it's great, and Claude code the most
       | fun I've had with tech in a jillion years.
        
       | LeoPanthera wrote:
       | That's funny. I was really hoping that Anthropic would make a
       | "Claude GUI".
        
         | consumer451 wrote:
         | In one of their Claude Code talks they said it didn't seem
         | worth it, given their expectation that all IDEs will become
         | obsolete by next year.
        
       | amclennon wrote:
       | At this point, there are more AI coding agents announced every
       | week than Javascript frameworks, but to be honest, I'm here for
       | it.
        
         | wilg wrote:
         | Think how many JavaScript frameworks can be vibe coded now!
        
           | kylecordes wrote:
           | (This is an exaggeration:)
           | 
           | Sure, you can have your LLM code with any JavaScript
           | framework you want, as long as you don't mind it randomly
           | dropping React code and React-isms in the middle of your app.
        
             | throwup238 wrote:
             | It's not a real JS framework without JSX support and
             | Typescript types that generate page long errors.
        
           | stavros wrote:
           | Why would we create a framework to make coding easier when
           | nobody writes code by hand any more?
        
             | tayo42 wrote:
             | Make one that's optimal for Ai somehow
        
           | fullstackwife wrote:
           | The concept of JS framework which allows you to rapidly
           | develop an app has the same underlying vibe as coding agent
        
       | asadm wrote:
       | seems pretty basic. I don't see anything unique here. I am happy
       | with my Gemini CLI.
        
       | twapi wrote:
       | Claude Code finally has a serious competitor.
        
         | asdfologist wrote:
         | Not sure. So far Reddit seems largely negative on Cursor CLI +
         | GPT-5
         | 
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1mk8ks5/discussion_...
        
       | afro88 wrote:
       | Claude Code but can use GPT-5 built in. Not a bad selling point
        
         | huydotnet wrote:
         | and access to Cursor's background agent on the web as well,
         | like ChatGPT Codex. So to this point, I'm regret cancelling my
         | Cursor subscription already
        
       | jameskraus wrote:
       | I wonder if this will support directly interfacing with OpenAI's
       | APIs vs. going through Cursor's APIs (and billing).
        
         | joshmlewis wrote:
         | I would highly doubt it. Even when you BYOK inside of Cursor
         | they still say it's routed through their servers.
        
       | blitzar wrote:
       | Pivot to CLI
        
         | cpursley wrote:
         | There are certainly some lessons here that go beyond coding
         | agents (when it comes to shipping products).
        
       | htrp wrote:
       | They are all clones of gemini cli at this point?
        
         | hollerith wrote:
         | Since Gemini CLI was released under the Apache license, a clone
         | is easy to make.
        
       | alessandrorubio wrote:
       | Wouldn't be better to just use the Warp AI solution at this
       | point?
        
         | buremba wrote:
         | Only if it would work. I think they miss a big opportunity here
         | by (1) not caring about security at all, (2) trying to develop
         | their own model and only make it available in the cloud.
        
       | risho wrote:
       | is there a way to get it to display more information? its stuck
       | not doing anything and i cant tell if that's because it timed out
       | or it is running a script or it is thinking or what is even
       | happening. sometimes it just does things without even giving any
       | feedback at all. i dont know what it is thinking or what it is
       | trying to do and i cant really see the output of the terminal
       | commands it is running. it just pauses every once in a while and
       | asks to run a command.
       | 
       | is there a way to make it more verbose?
        
         | joshmlewis wrote:
         | I noticed it was taking awhile on the first large-ish task I
         | gave it. I'm assuming it was just a bit overloaded at the
         | moment.
        
       | thehamkercat wrote:
       | I wonder when all of them will adopt AGENT.md and stop using
       | gemini.md/claude.md/crush.md/summary.md/qwen.md
       | 
       | https://agent.md [redirect -> https://ampcode.com/AGENT.md]
       | https://agent-rules.org
        
         | js2 wrote:
         | That's a more obvious (but less fun) name than what I've been
         | using: ROBOTS.md with symlinks.
        
           | thehamkercat wrote:
           | https://ampcode.com/AGENT.md#migration
           | 
           | they also suggest using symlinks for now
        
         | sneak wrote:
         | When they stop getting desperate for differentiation by
         | spamming their brand advertising in your repo against your
         | will.
         | 
         | Claude Code likes to add "attribution" in commit messages,
         | which is just pure spam.
        
           | striking wrote:
           | You can turn it off:
           | https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-
           | code/settings#avai... `includeCoAuthoredBy: false`
        
         | prmph wrote:
         | Yep, that's a peeve of mine. I've resorted to using AGENT.md,
         | and aliasing Claude, Gemini, etc to a command that calls them
         | with an initial instruction to read that file. But of course
         | they will forget after some time.
         | 
         | The whole agentic coding via CLI experience could be much
         | improved by:
         | 
         | - Making it easy to see what command I last issued, without
         | having to scroll up through reams of output hunting for context
         | - Making it easy to spin up a proper sandbox to run sessions
         | unattended - Etc.
         | 
         | Maybe for code generation, what we actually need is a code
         | generator that is itself deterministic but uses AI, instead of
         | AI that does code generation.
        
       | tsvetkov wrote:
       | Fascinating to see how agents are redefining what IDEs are. This
       | was not really the case in the chat AI era. But as autonomy
       | increases, the traditional IDE UI becomes less important form of
       | interaction. I think those CLI tools have pretty good chance to
       | create a new dev tools ecosystem. Creating a full featured
       | language plugin (let alone a full IDE) for VSCode or Intellij is
       | not for a faint-hearted, and cross IDE portability is limited.
       | CLI tools + MCP can be a lot simpler, more composable and more
       | portable.
        
       | macawfish wrote:
       | Hopefully this one is as good as Claude code. None of them that
       | I've tried have come close yet.
        
       | cheema33 wrote:
       | My first thought was, "meh, I already have Claude Code". But then
       | I remembered my primary frustration with Claude Code. I need
       | other LLMs to be able to validate Claude Code's assumptions and
       | work. I need to do this in an automated way. Before Cursor CLI, I
       | did not have a way to programmatically ask Cursor do this. It was
       | very manual, very painful. But, now I can create a Claude Code
       | agent that is a "cursor-specialist" that uses cursor cli to do
       | all of that in an automated way.
        
         | good8675309 wrote:
         | Interesting, are you saying you would setup a Stop Hook in
         | Claude Code that calls the Cursor CLI to have it validate and
         | prompt Claude Code with further instructions?
        
       | thornewolf wrote:
       | They realized that CLI is the much better interface for these
       | kinds of tasks.
        
       | lherron wrote:
       | With all the frontier labs competing in this space now, and them
       | letting you use your consumer subscription through the CLI, I
       | don't understand how the Cursor products will survive. Why pay an
       | extra $X/mo when I can get this functionality included in the
       | $Y/mo I'm already paying OAI/Anthropic/GOOG?
        
         | impulser_ wrote:
         | Because you can always use the best model. Yesterday is was
         | Claude Opus 4.1, today it's GPT-5. If you just were paying
         | Anthropic you will be stuck with Claude.
        
       | jasonjmcghee wrote:
       | I'm glad they support "Jetbrains", "Android Studio", _and_
       | "IntelliJ"
        
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       (page generated 2025-08-07 23:00 UTC)