| name | cursor-app-formatted |
| description | Use when extracting, formatting, refreshing, or investigating a read-only formatted snapshot of the installed Cursor.app bundle under .cursor-app-formatted; includes git-ignore rules, snapshot generation workflow, and the rule to inspect formatted code without patching either the snapshot code or the installed app. |
Cursor App Formatted Snapshot
Use this skill whenever a task involves reading, searching, formatting, refreshing, or relying on a formatted copy of the installed Cursor client bundle.
Invariants
- Never modify
/Applications/Cursor.app, any installed app bundle, signatures, or app copies.
- Never patch bundled code under
.cursor-app-formatted/ as a fix target. It is an ignored investigation snapshot only.
- If
.cursor-app-formatted/ is stale or wrong, regenerate it from the installed app instead of hand-editing its code.
- Fixes should land in this repository's real source code, scripts, or docs, not in formatted snapshot code.
- Keep
.cursor-app-formatted/ git-ignored. Do not stage or commit generated snapshot contents.
Preferred Investigation Flow
- If
.cursor-app-formatted/ exists, search and read that formatted snapshot first.
- Use
/Applications/Cursor.app only for read-only authenticity checks, hash comparison, or when the snapshot is missing or stale.
- Prefer stable formatted paths for line references and control-flow reading:
.cursor-app-formatted/extensions/cursor-always-local/dist/main.js
.cursor-app-formatted/extensions/cursor-agent-exec/dist/main.js
.cursor-app-formatted/extensions/cursor-agent-worker/dist/main.js
.cursor-app-formatted/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js
.cursor-app-formatted/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js
- When investigating installed-client behavior, compare formatted findings back to original source hashes or original bundle content only as needed.
Git Ignore Rule
Ensure .gitignore contains:
.cursor-app-formatted/
If the entry is missing and the user asked to create or refresh the snapshot, add it before generating the snapshot.
Snapshot Generation Workflow
Run from the repository root. This workflow copies only from the installed app into the ignored snapshot, then formats the copy.
set -euo pipefail
SNAPSHOT=.cursor-app-formatted
SOURCE=/Applications/Cursor.app/Contents/Resources/app
rm -rf "$SNAPSHOT"
mkdir -p "$SNAPSHOT"
/usr/bin/ditto "$SOURCE/extensions" "$SNAPSHOT/extensions"
mkdir -p "$SNAPSHOT/out/vs/workbench/api/node"
/usr/bin/ditto "$SOURCE/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js" "$SNAPSHOT/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js"
/usr/bin/ditto "$SOURCE/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js" "$SNAPSHOT/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js"
/usr/bin/shasum -a 256 \
"$SOURCE/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js" \
"$SOURCE/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js" \
> "$SNAPSHOT/source-sha256.txt"
/usr/bin/find "$SOURCE/extensions" -type f \( -name '*.js' -o -name '*.json' -o -name '*.css' \) -print \
| /usr/bin/sed "s#^$SOURCE/##" \
| while IFS= read -r rel; do
/usr/bin/shasum -a 256 "$SOURCE/$rel"
done >> "$SNAPSHOT/source-sha256.txt"
Format large JS bundles with js-beautify; Prettier can OOM on very large Cursor bundles and also skips ignored paths unless forced.
find .cursor-app-formatted -type f \( -name '*.js' -o -name '*.mjs' -o -name '*.cjs' \) -size +1M -print \
| while IFS= read -r file; do
npx --yes js-beautify --type js --indent-size 2 --end-with-newline --replace --quiet "$file"
done
find .cursor-app-formatted -type f \( -name '*.js' -o -name '*.mjs' -o -name '*.cjs' \) ! -size +1M -print \
| while IFS= read -r file; do
npx --yes js-beautify --type js --indent-size 2 --end-with-newline --replace --quiet "$file"
done
EMPTY_IGNORE="$(mktemp)"
trap 'rm -f "$EMPTY_IGNORE"' EXIT
find .cursor-app-formatted -type f \( -name '*.json' -o -name '*.css' \) -print0 \
| xargs -0 -n 25 npx --yes prettier --ignore-path "$EMPTY_IGNORE" --with-node-modules --write --log-level warn
Optionally add a small .cursor-app-formatted/README.md describing the source path, observed Cursor version, and that the snapshot is read-only.
Validation
After generation, verify the snapshot is ignored and key files are readable:
git status --short --ignored | rg '\.cursor-app-formatted'
wc -l \
.cursor-app-formatted/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js \
.cursor-app-formatted/extensions/cursor-always-local/dist/main.js \
.cursor-app-formatted/extensions/cursor-agent-exec/dist/main.js
Useful investigation check:
rg -n 'localMode|runLocalAgent|localProvider|BidiTransport|startYieldingInputsToTheServer' .cursor-app-formatted