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Found a workaround for Cursor context limit
nfrmn March 6, 2025
131 likes
I found a really good workaround for this problem everyone has been having, but it takes about an hour of setup.
1. Set up a Google Gemini API key (free)
2. Set up `cursor-tools` (you can find this on GitHub)
3. Follow the installation steps and integrate it into your project (the cursorrules file is important)
4. Every time you give big instructions, at the bottom of the prompt tell Agent to "ask Gemini to help you plan, and when you are finished, ask it to review your work"
5. `cursor-tools` zips the *entire* repo, uploads it to Gemini (which has a 2 million context token window), and it comes back with very clever analysis and a smart feedback loop for Agent. They kind of start talking to each other which is really cool to watch.
This workflow is generating really good results. I guess a lot of the intelligence problems really are down to the context summarisation.
The other thing I found works well is to ignore the new "Start a new chat for better results" message. Starting a new chat seems to lower the IQ of Cursor a lot, so I am sticking to the same chat for a day or two until a feature/project is completed.
Edit: I would recommend only attempting this if you are an experienced developer, because I've had to solve numerous configuration issues over the last 24 hours to get to 100% perfection, and even now it could break at any moment. But it is pretty incredible. My Cursor (v0.46.10) is one shotting very complex tasks again with Claude 3.7 Thinking + Gemini Pro.
Notes:
- 0.5.0, the version you can just npm install right now, only seems to work up to 1 million tokens
- 0.6.0-alpha.7 supports OpenRouter and [you can force it to use the 2 million token model](https://github.com/eastlondoner/cursor-tools/issues/57)
- But the alpha version randomly crashes about 1 in 10 times. You will waste fast requests restoring checkpoint and restarting it, if you care about that.
- Auto setup seems to automatically create the .cursorrules file but it doesn't work all the time, you should create the [.mdc](https://github.com/eastlondoner/cursor-tools/blob/2fbb1dfd5760c4712b98489bd133095225432827/.cursor/rules/cursor-tools.mdc) file instead.
- If you have a complex shell setup with zsh, zshell, nvm etc, cursor-tools might not be available inside the Agent's shell. You will have to debug this yourself.
I would go with the 0.5.0 version and the AI Studio key, not the 0.6.0-alpha.7 OpenRouter way, unless you have a huge repo or like getting hurt on the bleeding edge
Edit 2: 3 weeks later I take back what I said about Roo. It's really astonishing how fast they are improving the product and listening to users. I am using it more and more each day and falling in love with the plugin. And on top of that's it's open source!
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View allSomeone did a deep dive into Cursor Agent and discovered that it was literally just Claude Code with a process that does search and replace to brand it as Cursor Agent
[https://gist.github.com/jasonkneen/4c065df2d7a95610e4fd30c3e3398b17](https://gist.github.com/jasonkneen/4c065df2d7a95610e4fd30c3e3398b17)
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DrySalamander9728 178
How I use Cursor 10+ hours a day without torching my Claude Opus 4.6 limits
Anyone else here doing full-stack Next.js in Cursor and watching the Claude quota evaporate before lunch? I used to be in the same boat — massive context windows from all the components, pages, and DB logic would smoke the default limits fast. Not anymore. I’ve been on this setup for weeks and basically never hit a wall while still getting top-tier answers. Here’s exactly what I do: **1. .cursorrules is non-negotiable** I keep one in the root of every project. The key line I added: “Never explain the code to me. Just output the code blocks.” That single rule saves me thousands of output tokens a day. No more walls of “here’s what I changed and why” — just the goods. **2. Stopped using Cursor’s built-in Claude quota** I killed the default Cursor Pro subscription for the heavy stuff. Instead I use my own API keys and point Cursor’s “OpenAI Compatible” base URL at LLM Router Gateway. Inside [llmrouter](https://llmrouter.app/) routing settings I set up simple tags routing like this: * **UI & CSS tweaks**: gemini-3.1-flash → gpt-5.4-mini * **Deep backend / complex logic**: claude-opus-4.6 → deepseek-v3.2 * **General / quick questions**: llama-4-scout I sorted the fallback chains by speed vs intelligence. The router auto-detects the query type, so 90% of my UI polish and small fixes go to Gemini (basically free + huge context). I only actually hit Claude Opus 4.6 when I’m doing nasty database refactors or tricky architecture stuff. My Anthropic bill dropped \~70% overnight. **3. Cmd+K for everything small** Don’t open the full chat sidebar just to rename a variable or extract a component. Highlight the code, hit Cmd+K, let a fast model handle the inline edit. Saves a ton of tokens and feels way snappier. That’s it. Super simple but it completely changed how much I can actually use Cursor in a day. How are you all managing the limits? Using a Cursor Team? Or did you build your own router hacks too? Drop your setups — always looking to steal better ideas.
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Youssef_Wardi 310
Cursor V3 is a significant regression
So I used to be a big cursor fan - striked the right balance between trusting the AI and being able to check the work. The new version however, sucks. Worktrees are now essentially AI initiated magic git commands that require manual approval, which is slow and annoying, and means I have to read through a bunch of git guff, and I have to wait like a minute before it does any real work for it to essentially do something that can be duplicated with a script, and it doesn't work well half the time - it had to retry twice to apply worktree changes! The new agent screen is pretty useless, because now you need to go and select a bunch of information that previously would be entirely obvious from context i.e. alt-tabbing into a specific repo's IDE. I don't like this direction and if they continue, I might start looking at competitors. Cursor is clearly aimed at and used by developers who can read code and want to read the code produced by AI. I use Claude Code if I want to just trust the AI.
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ExaminationNo8522 212
Introducing Cursor 3
We’re introducing Cursor 3. It is simpler, more powerful, and built for a world where all code is written by agents, while keeping the depth of a development environment. With the new Cursor, you can run as many agents as you want, everywhere you want: locally, in a worktree, on remote ssh, and in the cloud. And it has the best parts of the editor available when you need them. The new interface is available as a separate window that complements the IDE. Update Cursor to try it. We recently launched Composer 2, a frontier model with high limits. Then, with cloud, we gave agents their own computers so they can work truly autonomously. And now with Cursor 3, we’re releasing a new interface to collaborate with agents on software.
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lrobinson2011 184
Cursor 3 out now
Cursor 3 out now
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Graniteman 125
They kinda cute
They kinda cute
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sugandalai 828