Cursor

Cursor is an advisory client: it can’t let sqz rewrite tool calls, so sqz saves tokens there only when the agent pipes output through sqz compress or calls the sqz MCP tools. Cursor’s built-in terminal and file tools bypass sqz.

Setup

1. Write the rules file

sqz init

This writes .cursor/rules/sqz.mdc (alwaysApply: true), which tells the agent to pipe long command output through sqz compress and to prefer the sqz MCP tools.

2. Add MCP config

sqz init does not register the MCP server for Cursor. Open Cursor settings → MCP, or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sqz": {
      "command": "sqz-mcp",
      "args": ["--transport", "stdio"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Cursor

Cursor picks up MCP server changes on restart. sqz doctor shows Cursor as configured, advisory.

Hooks from older sqz versions

sqz init 0.4.0 through 0.7.0 also wrote .cursor/hooks.json, with a hook that runs sqz hook cursor (0.4.0 to 0.6.0 in Claude Code’s hook format). From 0.7.0 through 1.9.0, sqz hook cursor answered every rewrite with an approval, which lets Cursor run the command without asking. It now prints nothing and exits 1, which Cursor treats as a failed hook: Cursor’s own approval applies and the command runs as written, uncompressed. sqz doctor reports such a hook in .cursor/hooks.json or ~/.cursor/hooks.json, and sqz doctor --fix and sqz uninstall remove it, keeping any other hooks in the file and deleting the file when nothing else is left.

What you get

• CLI output compressed when the agent pipes it through sqz compress
• sqz_read_file, sqz_grep and sqz_list_dir, with repeat results replaced by a short reference