Getting Started with Cursor Plugin Development: Build Your Own Tool

Getting Started with Cursor Plugin Development: Build Your Own Tool

by

Plugins are like the arsenal of a superhero’s utility belt for a modern IDE. They can make your development tools more powerful, smarter, and more tailored to your personalized needs. Surely, you want to have your own effective plugin, right? Today, I will guide you step by step on how to develop a Cursor plugin to create your own productivity tool!

Start with a Simple “Hello World”

The beginning is always tough, but the first step in developing a plugin is surprisingly simple. You just need to create a <span>plugins</span> folder, then create a <span>hello-world</span> directory inside it, and add an <span>index.ts</span> file like this:

// plugins/hello-world/index.ts
import { PluginInterface } from '@cursor-dev/api';

const HelloWorldPlugin: PluginInterface = {
  name: 'Hello World',
  description: 'My first Cursor plugin',
  version: '1.0.0',
  activate() {
    console.log('Hello, world!');
  },
};

export default HelloWorldPlugin;

With just a few lines of code, your first plugin is complete! When Cursor starts, it will automatically load this plugin and output “Hello, world!” in the console. Isn’t that amazing?

❝

Friendly reminder: Don’t forget to export your plugin in <span>plugins/index.ts</span>, or Cursor won’t be able to find it.

Make the Plugin Interactive with Commands

A plugin that only says “Hello” is a bit dull, so let’s add some interactivity. In Cursor, you can add functionality to your plugin by registering a Command. Commands are like buttons exposed to users, allowing them to trigger corresponding actions through the Command Palette.

import { PluginInterface, registerCommand } from '@cursor-dev/api';

const HelloWorldPlugin: PluginInterface = {
  // ...
  async activate() {
    registerCommand({
      id: 'hello-world.greet',
      name: 'Hello World: Greet',
      description: 'Greet the world',
      async run() {
        console.log('Hello, Cursor!');
      },
    });
  },
};

Now, when you search for “Hello World: Greet” in the Command Palette and execute it, you will see “Hello, Cursor!” output in the console. Can you feel the charm of plugins already?

Make the Plugin More Lively with WebView

Having said so much, why not develop a more practical plugin? For example, a plugin that displays the weather forecast in the Cursor sidebar, what do you think? Here we will use WebView. WebView allows you to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build the plugin UI, just like developing a small web application.

import { PluginInterface, registerWebView } from '@cursor-dev/api';

const WeatherPlugin: PluginInterface = {
  // ...
  async activate() {
    registerWebView({
      id: 'weather.view',
      name: 'Weather',
      description: 'Show weather forecast',
      html: `
        &lt;div&gt;
          &lt;h1&gt;Weather Forecast&lt;/h1&gt;
          &lt;p&gt;Today: Sunny, 25°C&lt;/p&gt;
          &lt;p&gt;Tomorrow: Cloudy, 22°C&lt;/p&gt;
        &lt;/div&gt;
      `,
    });
  },
};

Now, when you open the “Weather” panel in the sidebar, you will see a simple weather forecast. Of course, this is just a static example; you can completely call a weather API to display real weather data.

❝

Friendly reminder: Although WebView is powerful, don’t misuse it. The plugin’s UI should be simple and clear to avoid overwhelming users.

Publishing and Sharing

Once your plugin development is complete, don’t forget to share your achievements with the world. You can publish your plugin to the official Cursor plugin marketplace or share it on GitHub. Publishing a plugin is as easy as publishing an npm package; you just need to add some metadata in <span>package.json</span> and then run <span>npm publish</span>.

❝

Friendly reminder: Before publishing, remember to test the plugin yourself a few times to ensure there are no obvious bugs.

Continue Exploring

This article only takes you through the door of Cursor plugin development; many interesting features await your exploration. For instance, you can try using EditAI code completion to provide personalized code suggestions for users, or use semantic search to enhance the code navigation experience. The Cursor Plugin API is continuously being enriched and improved, and I believe it will soon become a paradise for plugin developers.

The journey of developing plugins is full of surprises and challenges, but also full of accomplishment. When you see your plugin being used and loved by more and more people, that sense of satisfaction is indescribable. I believe there is a place for you in the Cursor ecosystem. Let’s contribute more interesting and useful plugins to Cursor together!

Leave a Comment