Cursor 3

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception

  • Very mixed response. Some praise Cursor 3 as a strong agent workspace; many existing users are uneasy or considering switching tools.
  • Several note Cursor has “fallen out of the cool kids club” but remains very productive for some heavy users.

What Cursor 3 adds / does well

  • Multi-model support (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Composer, some OSS models) remains a major selling point, including mixing expensive and cheap models in workflows.
  • Strong inline autocomplete in the IDE is repeatedly cited as best-in-class and the main reason some people still use Cursor.
  • Cloud platform + “computer use in the cloud” (remote dev envs, SSH, browser, agents that can test what they write) is seen as Cursor’s most differentiated feature.
  • New UI for managing many agents and cloud worktrees in parallel is welcomed by users who already work in “agent swarm” style.

Concerns about direction (agent-first vs code-first)

  • Many long-time users liked Cursor as “IDE-first with an assistant,” i.e., human driving, AI assisting within a traditional editor.
  • Cursor 3’s Codex/Claude Code–like agent workspace is perceived by some as moving toward “vibe coding” and away from code visibility, LSP tools, and fine-grained control.
  • Multiple commenters fear that autocomplete and IDE-centric features will be de-prioritized or sunset over time.
  • Others argue fully agentic, chat-first workflows are the future and IDEs will matter less.

Value vs Claude Code / Codex / VS Code

  • Recurrent question: why pay Cursor when Claude Code, Codex, Copilot + VS Code (or Zed, Sublime, Neovim) can provide similar or better models and workflows?
  • Several report massive cost savings moving from Cursor enterprise/API-based usage to Claude Max / ChatGPT-style fixed plans, with comparable or better productivity.
  • Others say Cursor’s harness, worktree management, and cloud agents still feel smoother and more capable than raw Claude Code or VS Code extensions.

Pricing, business model, and lock‑in

  • Complaints about hitting limits, expensive overages, and enterprise renewals shifting to heavy usage-based pricing.
  • Some see Cursor’s attempts to center its own agent UI and reduce room for third‑party extensions as anti‑user but rational for monetization.
  • Skepticism that a non–model-owning IDE company can sustain margins against Anthropic/OpenAI’s subsidized subscriptions.

Stability and platform issues

  • Reports of Cursor 3 crashing on Linux (Wayland/Fedora), with mixed experiences depending on install method.
  • Some revert to plain VS Code or alternative editors due to regressions, plugin breakage, or UI churn in Cursor.