Cursor CLI
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 5 terminal coding agents by recommenders
Developers recommend it as a capable terminal agent that matches mainstream rivals, with good limits for $20 a month and easy model switching.
Developers recommend it as a capable terminal agent that matches mainstream rivals, with good limits for $20 a month and easy model switching.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Competitive with other coding agents
“Cursor has a terminal based app that’s just as good as any of the other mainstream ones”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B” “It took the same amount of time (3 seconds) as cursor-agent and codex on my machine”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage” “i find cursor cli significantly better than opencode right now”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Anthropic: Developing a Claude Code competitor using Claude Code is banned” - Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Kimi K2.7-Code: open-source coding model with better token efficiency”
Good, capable agent overall
“Cursor also has a CLI agent called cursor-agent that is quite good.”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” “They have a CLI agent that works pretty well.”
Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX” “is quite good, and it is under-marketed”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Everything we like is a psyop” - Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B”
Liked its harness and approach
“I fixed that by using cursor the agent but not the UI.”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Cursor Introduces Composer 2.5” “I also quite like Cursor's harness/approach to things”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Stop Generating, Start Thinking”
Other terminal coding agents people recommend
The four most recommended other terminal coding agents, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot CLI | 56 | 37 | 60% | 12 | 3 mo3 owners | — |
| Cursor CLIThis page | 17 | 5 | 77% | 9 | — | Approved |
| CodeWhale | 7 | 0 | 100% | 5 | 1 mo3 owners | — |
| Agentty | 7 | 2 | 78% | 2 | — | — |
| OSS Agent | 6 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I use the same skills, rules, and MCPs across claude code, cursor, and pi.”
“The design it came up with was excellent”
“They have a CLI agent that works pretty well.”
“with Cursor CLI is pretty capable with good limits for just $20 /mo”
“It took the same amount of time (3 seconds) as cursor-agent and codex on my machine”
“I found it useful when reviewing work”
“I like to be able to switch models when one gets stupid or guard-railed”
“Cursor has a terminal based app that’s just as good as any of the other mainstream ones”
“The cursor cli (`agent`) is fine.”
“opencode and cursor cli perform better than claude code”
“I fixed that by using cursor the agent but not the UI.”
“is quite good, and it is under-marketed”
“Doesn't seem to work with Cursor Agent”
“when i just its build in it scored 10/16 tokens”
“the follow up text is taken as approval to build and it automatically switches to building.”
“I would never use it though god”
“I tried it when it first came out and it was lacking then.”
“I also quite like Cursor's harness/approach to things”
“i find cursor cli significantly better than opencode right now”
“Cursor also has a CLI agent called cursor-agent that is quite good.”
“There are some Enterprise plan shenanigans, so cli is not an option.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.