---
title: "intentic vs Cursor · the editor and the agent workspace"
description: "Cursor puts you at the keyboard with a model helping; intentic puts your agents at the keyboard with you reviewing. How they differ, and how desktop sync makes running both real."
url: "https://intentic.dev/compare/cursor/"
---

[Compare](https://intentic.dev/compare/) AI editors · keep yours

# Cursor is where you write code. intentic is where your agents do.

This is the comparison that most often ends in “both”. Different jobs on the same files, with a mechanism that makes running both real.

> “Your coding agent for building ambitious software”: an AI editor, with desktop agents, cloud agents, a CLI and automations around it.

*Cursor · [cursor.com](https://cursor.com/)*

[Get started free](https://app.intentic.dev) [See the product](https://intentic.dev/product/)

The short answer

Cursor's centre of gravity is the cursor in a file: completion, inline edits, a model that knows what you are looking at. Everything it has added since is arranged around that.

intentic's centre of gravity is a board of agents sorted by which one needs a decision from you. The editor exists so you can read what they wrote, not so you can out-type them.

If you want the model to help you write, use Cursor. If you want to run five agents and review their diffs, that is this. Keeping both is the normal outcome, not a compromise.

## Where we agree

Both run agents in parallel, both make you read a diff before anything is yours, and both have automations. Cursor's inline editing has no equivalent here and is not trying to get one.

## Where they differ

01

### Whose computer the background agent uses

Cursor's cloud agents run on Cursor's machines, which is what makes them zero-setup. intentic's run in a container on yours, reached over a tunnel it dials out. Same remote experience, opposite custody.

02

### The environment is a file you approve

In an editor the agent inherits your machine. Here it has an image of its own, extended by an overlay Dockerfile you approve, plus capabilities that wire it to your systems.

03

### Whose bill the tokens land on

intentic runs on the Claude, ChatGPT, SuperGrok, Kimi or Google account you already pay for, and never meters or marks up model usage. The ledger lives in your sandbox.

04

### Supervision as a surface, not a notification

Ten agents need somewhere to be ranked. An agent moves itself into the Attention lane with its reason, so a fleet reads as a short list of things only you can do.

## Head to head

| Dimension | intentic | Cursor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who is at the keyboard | the agent; you configure and review | you; the model assists |
| Inline completion and Cmd+K editing | not offered | ▸ the core of the product |
| Where a background agent runs | your hardware, in a sandbox | Cursor's cloud |
| What you can change about the environment | the image, the capabilities, the context loaded each turn | rules, MCP servers, your local machine |
| Model billing | your own subscription, no metering by us | Cursor's plans, or your API keys |
| Supervising many agents | a fleet board with an Attention lane | an agents list in the editor and on the web |
| Editor maturity | a workspace editor for reading and small edits | ▸ a full IDE, forked from VS Code |
| Source you can read | sandbox and CLI are MIT on GitHub | closed source |

Not either/or

## Run both, and mean it

Turn on desktop sync and the sandbox mirrors into a folder on your own machine, both ways. Open it in Cursor and you edit the same tree your agents work in: they land a diff, your editor sees it.

## Pick Cursor when

The work is you typing: refactoring by hand with the model completing around you, or living inside one repo all day. Cursor is very good at that.

Every claim above is checkable on [cursor.com](https://cursor.com/) and in this repo. Where we have it wrong, [open an issue](https://github.com/intentic/intentic/issues) and it gets fixed in the next build.

[Next comparison vs Claude Code → The terminal agent, and the workspace it runs in](https://intentic.dev/compare/claude-code/)

[Get started free](https://app.intentic.dev) [All comparisons](https://intentic.dev/compare/)