Using Wing with Cursor

Wing Pro 12 integrates Cursor, Cursor's AI coding agent with the IDE. You can run Cursor in Wing's AI Agent tool, use the Tasks tool for queueing, tracking, and reviewing agent work, ask the agent to fix failed tests, debugger exceptions, or code warnings, or use the agent to better understand code and run code reviews.

Wing uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to give the agent access to the IDE's analysis, debugger, testing, and version control features, allowing it to work more efficiently on most complex coding problems.

If you do not already have Wing installed, download it now.

This How-To covers what Cursor itself needs and how to set it up in Wing. The workflow that follows is described in Using Wing with an AI Agent.

Cursor is functional, with some safety concerns: Wing never sees its file changes, and it runs the Tasks Manager only in an Auto-Approve that does no safety checks. See the table in AI Agent Safety, which compares the agents' safety and suitability for autonomous development.

Prerequisites

Cursor's command line agent is a separate download and not included in the main Cursor installation.

On macOS, Linux, or WSL, install it with:

curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash

On Windows, install it from PowerShell with:

irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' | iex

This is the Cursor CLI and not the full Cursor editor. Wing runs Cursor's own terminal interface inside the AI Agent tool.

Once Cursor has been installed, quit Wing and start it again so it picks up your updated PATH.

Quick Setup

To allow Wing to use Cursor in your project, use Set Up for AI Agent > Cursor in the Project menu. This opens a dialog asking for the top-level directory where you want the agent to run. This defaults to the Wing project directory, but can be changed. After you submit this dialog, Wing:

authorizes use of Cursor in this project
writes the development guides that tell the agent about this project's conventions, testing regimen, and commit policy
points AGENTS.md at those guides (creating it if it does not already exist)
opens the Tasks and AI Agent tools side by side

You can do the same as part of the process of creating a new Wing project, with the Set Up for AI Agent option in the New Project dialog.

Note that you can also set up other agents in your Wing project, by running the same setup process for each.

For the files Wing writes into that directory, and which of them it keeps out of version control, see Setting Up an AI Agent.

Authentication

Cursor requires a Cursor account, reached either by signing in centrally or by giving Wing an API key. A free account is enough to try it, though its usage allowance is small.

Cursor asks for a sign-in automatically when you create the first session and completes login through your web browser. You can also run cursor-agent login ahead of time outside of Wing to complete the login.

To use an API key instead, create one in the Cursor dashboard, then set CURSOR_API_KEY in the Environment in Project Properties.

The first time Cursor runs in a directory it asks whether to trust that directory's contents. Answer it in the AI Agent tool; Wing waits for the answer before sending any task.

Permissions

Cursor asks before running a command or calling a tool, in its own interface, where you answer it. The Questions tab of the Tasks tool lists each such question while it waits. It does not ask before changing a file, however, including files outside the project, so the edit pre-approvals on the AI Agent tab of Project Properties do not reach it. Wing warns about this before an Ask For Approval task starts. To have Cursor look at code without changing anything, use Plan.

Auto-Approve uses Cursor's Run Everything mode, which runs every command that is not explicitly denied, and Wing warns about this before the task starts. Cursor's Auto-review mode was not used because it still asked about many commands, which stalled tasks. Wing's own tools are pre-approved in .cursor/cli.json, one of the three files it writes for Cursor.

Advanced: ACP

Wing can also run Cursor over the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), which Wing manages in its own AI agent conversation UI. This version is listed as Cursor ACP only when the Show ACP Versions of Agents preference on the AI page under Projects in Preferences is enabled, or while you hold Shift with an agent menu open. It uses the same installation of Cursor, but is not recommended: it has no Auto-Approve, so its tasks stop for you to approve commands.

Cursor ACP asks Wing before running a command or calling a tool, and Wing answers from the project's pre-approvals as it does for other agents. With the preference enabled, you can also give it an API key by choosing Configure Agents... from the AI Agent tool's Options menu (the ⋯ button), adding a configuration for Cursor, selecting Cursor API key, and pointing Wing at your key. A configuration can be shared with your other projects or kept with this one, so different projects can use different keys.

Next Steps

Once Cursor is set up, you should be able to try it out in the AI Agent tool, manage tasks from the Tasks tool, and make use of Wing's other agentic development features.

For more information, see Using Wing with an AI Agent.