Skip to content
Flywrite

Writing with Cursor

Flywrite doesn't bundle its own AI. Instead, you run the real Cursor Agent, Cursor's command-line agent, in the built-in terminal, on your own subscription — with your own setup and no extra AI fees from Flywrite.

Before you start

Install the Cursor CLI by following Cursor's CLI guide. Once it runs in your computer's terminal, it runs in Flywrite. Then do the one-time Flywrite setup below — it's what lets Cursor Agent see what you're working on. Still choosing between Cursor and VS Code for writing? See how they compare.

The writing loop

  1. Open a terminal and launch Cursor Agent — ⌃4, or the + button in the terminal tab bar.
  2. Select some text in your document. Cursor Agent sees your selection and your open files — no copying and pasting.
  3. Ask for what you want — "tighten this paragraph," "draft an intro from these notes."
  4. Watch the edits land. The agent edits your files directly, and the editor updates live. It can also open a file in the editor for you — one it just created, say.
  5. Review and keep writing. You can hand-edit right alongside the agent.

Pointing the agent at your work

You can @-mention a file right in your prompt (type @ and the file name), but you often don't need to: once setup is done, Flywrite tells Cursor Agent which file you're looking at and which text you've highlighted. Ask about "this file" or "the selected paragraph" and it just knows.

To hand off a selection explicitly, press ⌘⇧L — Send Selection to Terminal — and Flywrite drops a reference to it into the terminal for you. (These shortcuts are defaults — all of them are customizable.)

Your safety net

Once setup is done, Flywrite automatically saves a checkpoint the moment a Cursor Agent session connects, so you can always see exactly what changed — and restore any earlier version if you don't like it. See Checkpoints & versions.

Know when it's done

A spinner on the terminal tab shows the agent is busy. Flywrite can also send a system notification when Cursor Agent finishes a task in a Flywrite terminal, and can play a sound with it. (Stopping a task yourself doesn't trigger one.) The notification switch lives on the Cursor Agent page in Settings → Agents; the sound is in Settings → Notifications. Click the notification to jump straight back to that terminal.

Setting up Cursor Agent

Settings → Agents → Cursor Agent has its terminal shortcut, its notification switch, and its one-time Flywrite setup. The setup lives in Cursor's own config, and Cursor Agent applies it for you: click Set up with Cursor Agent… and a terminal opens where the agent adds the entries while you watch and approve the edit — Flywrite never edits those files itself. Preview prompt shows the exact prompt the agent is given, and Copy prompt lets you paste it into a session you already have open instead. Once installed, the same button offers to remove it again. Setup takes effect in new agent sessions, and everything it installs does nothing in terminals outside Flywrite.

The setup adds two things:

  • A stop hook that tells Flywrite when a task finishes.
  • Flywrite's MCP server, so Cursor Agent can see the file and lines you have open. If Cursor asks you to approve the Flywrite server and its tool the first time a session uses it, say yes.

If Settings says only part of the setup is in place, run it again — it only adds what's missing.

Agents can tune Flywrite, too

Your app settings are editable as files, so Cursor Agent can manage them for you. Open the Settings project (Settings → Edit settings file (JSON)), launch Cursor Agent in its terminal, and ask — "switch me to a warmer theme," "make the code font bigger." Changes apply live as the agent works, and the automatic checkpoint means anything can be rolled back. Details in Appearance & themes.