Work with Cursor and VS Code

Use this guide when you want to open Conductor workspaces in Cursor, keep Cursor windows easy to identify, or migrate Cursor MCP servers and rules into Conductor.

Open workspaces in Cursor or VS Code

From a workspace, click Open In or press Command O⌘+O to open the workspace directory in Cursor or VS Code.

If the workspace is already open, Conductor focuses the existing editor window.

Name Cursor windows by branch

When several workspaces are open in Cursor, use the window title to show the branch and workspace name.

1. In Cursor, open User Settings with Command Shift P⌘+Shift+P, then choose Preferences: Open User Settings.
2. Search for window.title.
3. Set it to:

${activeRepositoryBranchName}${separator}${rootName}${separator}${profileName}

Cursor will show the branch name in the title bar, like:

my-feature — tokyo

Migrate MCP servers

Cursor stores MCP config in ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) and .cursor/mcp.json (project-level). Conductor uses Claude Code's MCP config.

Global MCP servers

Copy your servers from ~/.cursor/mcp.json into ~/.claude.json:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "context7": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": ["-y", "@upstash/context7-mcp"]
        }
    }
}

The format is the same. Copy the mcpServers object into ~/.claude.json.

Project-level MCP servers

Copy from .cursor/mcp.json to .mcp.json in your project root:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "my-project-server": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": ["./tools/mcp-server.js"]
        }
    }
}

You can also add MCPs from inside Conductor. See MCP docs for more.

Migrate rules and instructions

Cursor uses .cursorrules or .cursor/rules/*.mdc files for custom instructions. In Conductor, the equivalent is CLAUDE.md.

.cursorrules

Copy the contents of your .cursorrules file into a CLAUDE.md file at the root of your project:

cp .cursorrules CLAUDE.md

.cursor/rules/*.mdc

.mdc files have YAML frontmatter that you'll want to strip. Copy just the markdown body into CLAUDE.md:

for f in .cursor/rules/*.mdc; do
  echo "" >> CLAUDE.md
  # Strip frontmatter (content between --- markers)
  sed '1{/^---$/!q;};1,/^---$/d' "$f" >> CLAUDE.md
done

Global instructions

Cursor's global AI rules map to ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, which applies to all projects:

# Create global instructions
mkdir -p ~/.claude
echo "Your global instructions here" > ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

Use the migration script

We've published a script that automates all of the above. It handles global and project-level MCP servers, .cursorrules, and .mdc rule files.

curl -fsSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/cbh123/4187d4c6774a557b26ed6bcf054f42e2/raw/migrate-cursor-to-conductor.sh | bash

Or to preview what it would do without making changes:

curl -fsSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/cbh123/4187d4c6774a557b26ed6bcf054f42e2/raw/migrate-cursor-to-conductor.sh -o migrate.sh
chmod +x migrate.sh
./migrate.sh --dry-run

Quick reference