Cursor is an AI-first code editor built on top of VS Code — designed from the ground up for AI-assisted development. Where GitHub Copilot adds AI to VS Code, Cursor rebuilds the entire editor around AI.
Key Facts
Fork of VS Code — all your extensions and settings work
Built-in access to GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and other frontier models
Deep codebase understanding — not just the current file
Used by engineers at OpenAI, Stripe, Shopify, and top startups