Cursor host notes

Setup registers the user-scope connection and installs portable workflows into the skills folder. Follow Install and restart Cursor. The source adapter exposes two pair skills and their earlier-name pointers; it disables discovery of Claude-only agents and hooks. See manual configuration for project scope and Migration for earlier registrations.

/codex-pair on Cursor

Cursor's /codex-pair is an on-demand iterative pair session. Cursor remains the editor; an authenticated Codex CLI is the explicit read-only reviewer. Both model=<exact ID> and effort=low|medium|high|xhigh|max|ultra are required: the adapter cannot safely infer environment defaults inside a separately spawned MCP server. If either is omitted, pairing stops before extra context is read or consent is requested. Before calling the provider it reports those exact choices, bounded files, relative include directories, quota/data boundary, and asks for consent.

The first Codex call (ask-codex when user-installed, otherwise the fully pinned unified ask-llm with provider: "codex") passes sessionId: "" to create a persisted thread, sandbox: "read-only", and may pass up to 32 safe relative includeDirs. Follow-ups reuse the returned structured Thread ID and omit includeDirs, because codex exec resume does not support --add-dir; a resumed call that still passes includeDirs is rejected by every Codex transport (split ask-codex, unified ask-llm) rather than silently dropping the directories. Feedback is relayed and source-verified before Cursor edits. Interrupts cancel the MCP call; unavailable tools/models, incomplete unified schemas, partial failures, and any Codex quota fallback are reported rather than hidden.

Example:

/codex-pair model=gpt-6-sol effort=medium include=packages/api,packages/shared review this migration

With the plugin loaded, the unified ask-llm tool is the bundled transport: /codex-pair uses it with provider: "codex" and every option pinned; unsupported combinations (including includeDirs on a resumed thread) are rejected instead of stripped. A separately user-installed ask-codex leaf is preferred when exposed. If neither transport is present, run ask-llm setup --host cursor, follow any printed guidance, authenticate Codex, and reload from Cursor Settings → Tools & MCP or restart Cursor Agent. Earlier registrations are covered by Migration.

/grok-pair route safety

When Cursor itself is the host, /grok-pair does not recursively invoke Cursor Agent. Select xai-api or grok-cli through the bundled unified ask-llm with provider, harness, exact model, and effort all pinned, or through a separately user-installed ask-grok leaf when exposed; there is no fallback. Claude Code may instead select Grok through the model-neutral ask-cursor-agent tool; that route keeps host, provider, Cursor harness, exact catalog ID, and optional display label separate and refuses Auto or cross-provider substitution.

If neither direct transport is exposed, run ask-llm setup --host cursor and reload Cursor. The xai-api route needs XAI_API_KEY in the MCP process environment; keep literal secrets in user-level configuration and never commit them. The grok-cli route needs authenticated Grok Build with headless JSON flags visible in grok --help. Reload from Cursor Settings → Tools & MCP or restart Cursor Agent, then invoke /grok-pair again. Unified startup probes both direct harnesses, so a CLI-only login works without setting ASK_GROK_HARNESS=grok-cli; the request still pins harness: "grok-cli", and no API fallback occurs. A CLI-only call that omits harness fails with a diagnostic naming that pin (or ASK_GROK_HARNESS=grok-cli), and an explicit ASK_GROK_HARNESS makes startup readiness track that harness alone.

Lifecycle differences

Capability	Claude Code	Cursor Agent
/codex-pair	Marker-gated continuous hooks plus dashboard	On-demand skill-backed persisted reviewer session
Registration	Claude plugin + .mcp.json (Codex only)	Cursor Plugin Agent Skills + mcp.json (unified ask-llm only; split servers user-installed)
Include directories	Per-edit context from marker/project	Explicit safe relative includeDirs on first Codex call
Completion gate	Optional Claude Stop hook	Explicit completed/cancelled/failed session report
Cancellation	Claude hook/provider process lifecycle	Cursor MCP AbortSignal/interrupt
Pause / resume / ack	/codex-pair-pause, /codex-pair-resume, /codex-pair-ack toggle the background hook	Setup installs the portable skills, but they do not control Cursor's on-demand session; end or restart that session instead

The portable contract is canonical in packages/llm-mcp/skills/ask-llm-codex-pair/pairing-contract.md; host adapters must not claim lifecycle guarantees their host does not provide.