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Cursor: installing and setting up

By Ivo Donker · — created with AI assistance (writer: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash; critic: Gemini 3.8 Flash)

Cursor: ReviewInstall & set upNewsTechnical tutorial

As of September 2026, compiled from our own notes and news archive; text machine-generated and editorially checked. Check versions and commands in the official documentation.

In this guide you install Cursor, the AI code editor with a built-in agent, on macOS, Windows or Linux. You log in, configure privacy properly, give your project rules and, if desired, also install the command-line agent. Everything is based on the official documentation (as of September 2026).

What you need

Installing the editor

Download Cursor from cursor.com/downloads and install it like any other program.

Cursor is based on VS Code. On first launch you can import your VS Code extensions, themes and keyboard shortcuts, so your familiar environment is ready straight away.

Logging in and opening a project

  1. Start Cursor and log in (or create an account).
  2. Choose Open Folder and open your project folder.
  3. Open the agent with Cmd+I (Mac) or Ctrl+I (Windows/Linux).

Setting privacy correctly straight away

Are you working on code that must not go outside? Then turn on Privacy Mode immediately: your code will then not be used by Cursor or the model providers for training.

  1. Open the settings with Cmd+Shift+J (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+J (Windows/Linux).
  2. Go to General.
  3. Turn on Privacy Mode.

On Teams and Enterprise accounts, Privacy Mode is on by default; with an individual account you have to turn it on yourself.

Rules for your project

Cursor follows instructions you put in your project. There are two simple ways.

AGENTS.md: a normal markdown file in the root of your project.

# AGENTS.md
- Dit is een Next.js-project met TypeScript.
- Tests draaien met `npm test`; draai ze na elke wijziging.
- Gebruik geen nieuwe dependencies zonder te vragen.

Project rules: .mdc files in .cursor/rules/. These offer more control, for example a rule that applies only to certain files. Note: ordinary .md files in that folder are ignored. An example, .cursor/rules/componenten.mdc:

---
description: "Standaarden voor frontend-componenten"
globs: src/components/**/*.tsx
alwaysApply: false
---
- Gebruik functionele componenten met TypeScript-props.
- Styling via Tailwind-klassen, geen losse CSS-bestanden.

The first task

Start small. First ask the agent to explain your codebase, for example: "Explain how authentication works in this project." Then let it make a small change and review the difference before you accept it.

For larger tasks, turn on Plan Mode with Shift+Tab. The agent then first examines the relevant files, asks questions, makes a plan and waits for your approval before writing code.

Optional: the command-line agent

Cursor also has an agent for the terminal, useful for scripts and CI.

macOS, Linux and WSL:

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

Windows (PowerShell):

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

The program is called agent. Try it in your project folder:

agent "Leg in drie zinnen uit wat dit project doet."

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