Install Cursor in Under 10 Minutes: The Complete Setup Guide

Cursor installation is simple, but a few choices in the first ten minutes affect your experience for months. Here is the complete setup, including the imports you should run immediately and the privacy settings worth understanding.

Getting Cursor running takes minutes. Getting it running well takes a few deliberate choices during setup. This guide walks through the install, the imports that make Cursor feel like home immediately, the privacy settings that matter for professional work, and the first-project setup that determines how good Cursor will be at understanding your code.

Step 1: Download and Install

Download Cursor from cursor.com. Native installers exist for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows (x64 and ARM64) and Linux (deb, rpm, and AppImage). The download is approximately 200MB. On macOS, drag the app to Applications. On Windows, run the setup executable. On Linux, use dpkg for Debian-based systems or make the AppImage executable and run it directly.

Step 2: Import Your VS Code Setup

On first launch, Cursor offers to import your VS Code settings, extensions, keybindings and themes. Accept this. It takes about 30 seconds and ensures your entire development environment carries over. Cursor uses the same extension API as VS Code, so virtually every extension you have works without modification.

If you skipped the import, run it manually from the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P) by searching for "Cursor: Import from VS Code." One note: disable any AI extensions you imported, like GitHub Copilot or Continue, since they duplicate Cursor's built-in functionality and can conflict with it.

Step 3: Sign In and Choose Privacy Settings

Cursor requires sign-in to use AI features (GitHub, Google or email). The free Hobby tier needs no payment information and includes a two-week Pro trial plus an ongoing small quota of premium requests.

Two privacy settings deserve attention. Privacy Mode disables code retention entirely, meaning your code is never stored on Cursor servers or used to train models. Enable it if you work with proprietary code, regulated data or trade secrets (it requires Pro tier or above). Telemetry, which covers usage analytics but not code content, can be disabled separately if you prefer minimal data sharing.

Step 4: Open a Project and Let It Index

When you open a project for the first time, Cursor indexes the codebase to understand structure, imports, symbol relationships and file organisation. This indexing is what makes Cursor's codebase awareness dramatically better than plugin-based tools. It runs in the background and typically completes in 30 seconds to two minutes for projects under 10,000 files.

For large monorepos, configure exclusions in a .cursorignore file using the same syntax as .gitignore. Exclude node_modules, build outputs, and binary directories so indexing focuses on your actual source code.

Verify Everything Works

Once indexing completes, test it: open Chat and ask for a high-level overview of your codebase architecture. A good, specific answer means indexing succeeded and Cursor understands your project. A vague or generic answer means indexing failed or is incomplete, usually due to an overly aggressive .cursorignore or an interrupted index. This 30-second check saves hours of confusion later.