Cursor+11 Mixed

Operator Insights

What are engineering leaders learning from deploying Cursor?

16 accounts: 3 switched, 4 run it beside another tool, 1 evaluated it, 3 adopted it and 5 reported by others

Switched to or from it3

Peter LudwigCo-founder and CTOApplied Intuition
Company-wide engineering, with an internal adoption leaderboard. To April 2026.
Latent Space, published Apr 27, 2026Listen to the episode (opens Latent Space in a new tab)
Observation
At Applied Intuition, Claude Code replaced Cursor as the company's most used coding tool.
Takeaway
An editor that wins first does not keep the lead by default; read usage by tool before renewing seats.
What happened
Applied Intuition uses every coding tool and runs an internal leaderboard to encourage adoption. Cursor was the most used tool in the company for a good while, and by April 2026 Claude Code had taken that place.
“Yeah. We use everything. So Cursor was, I think the hottest tool in the company for a good while. Now Claude Code, I think has taken the reign on that. We have a internal leader, leaderboard that we use just to sort of encourage adoption…”
Peter Ludwig, Applied Intuition, at 21:55 in the recording
- Podcast episode
- Organization usage reported
Deployment details
Company-wide engineering, with an internal adoption leaderboard. To April 2026.
- Podcast episode
- Organization usage reported
Team
Applied Intuition engineering
Workload
Autonomy and vehicle software
Product version
Cursor, then Claude Code
Measurement
Internal adoption leaderboard

IndeedJun 29, 2026DX Engineering Enablement podcastIndeed's developers paid for Cursor themselves before the company moved to agents.
Michael ReddingPrincipal Product ManagerIndeed
Engineering organization of about 2,000 engineers. 2025 to mid-2026.
DX Engineering Enablement podcast, published Jun 29, 2026Listen to the episode (opens DX Engineering Enablement podcast in a new tab)
Observation
Indeed's developers paid for Cursor themselves before the company moved to agents.
Takeaway
Engineers buying their own seats is the adoption signal; follow it, then measure which tool keeps the usage.
What happened
With only Copilot and Cody available, Indeed heard that developers were paying for Cursor themselves, so it committed to agentic tools and retired Copilot and Cody once their use fell to about 3%. By mid-2026 its mix was mostly Claude Code, with a little Cursor and some Windsurf and Amp.
“We only had, like Jeff was saying, we only had Cody and Copilot available for us. And then we kind of committed … We started hearing from our developers actually that they were really enjoying this new tool called Cursor. We found people paying for cursor licenses out of their own pocket,…”
Michael Redding
Podcast episode (DX Engineering Enablement, published on YouTube Jun 29, 2026)
Organization metrics reported
Deployment details
Engineering organization of about 2,000 engineers. 2025 to mid-2026.
Podcast episode (DX Engineering Enablement, published on YouTube Jun 29, 2026)
Organization metrics reported
Team
Indeed engineering, about 2,000 engineers
Duration
About 18 months
Workload
Product development
Product version
Cursor beside Claude Code, Windsurf and Amp
Measurement
Weekly active use of AI tools
SuperhumanAug 18, 2026Merantix AI CampusAt Superhuman, Cursor let a backend engineer build front ends, until Claude Code replaced it.
Yaroslav (Yarik)Tech lead for the coding-agent rolloutSuperhuman
Superhuman engineering, formerly Grammarly. 2025 to August 2026.
Merantix AI Campus, published Aug 18, 2026Watch the talk (opens Merantix AI Campus in a new tab)
Observation
At Superhuman, Cursor let a backend engineer build front ends, until Claude Code replaced it.
Takeaway
Cursor widened what each engineer could build; the move to terminal agents came when delegation mattered more than editing.
What happened
Superhuman's engineers moved from Copilot's autocomplete to Cursor, which let a backend engineer build front ends, and switched to Claude Code after Anthropic offered an early beta about 11 months before the August 2026 talk. The tech lead who ran the rollout has not written code in the editor since.
“And then Cursor came out and I I said as I said I'm backend engineer, but suddenly I could do a front end.”
Yaroslav (Yarik), Superhuman, at 3:05, from automatic captions
Conference talk
Self-reported
Deployment details
Superhuman engineering, formerly Grammarly. 2025 to August 2026.
Conference talk
Self-reported
Team
Superhuman engineering
Workload
Product engineering
Product version
Cursor, then Claude Code

Run it beside another tool4

James ReggioCTOBrex
Brex engineering, January 2026.
Latent Space, published Jan 17, 2026Listen to the episode (opens Latent Space in a new tab)
Observation
Brex lets employees pick Cursor, Windsurf or Claude Code credits and buys few seats of each.
Takeaway
Small seat counts across tools keep a company from locking in while the tools change.
What happened
Brex procures a small number of seats of several coding tools and lets employees pick between Cursor, Windsurf and Claude Code credits, switching easily between them. It uses usage trends to resist company-wide contracts at renewal.
“You can pick, you know, between like Cursor, Windsurf, Cloud Code, Credits, like, and you can basically craft your stack to your preference and easily switch between them.”
James Reggio, Brex, at 21:15 in the recording
- Podcast episode
- Self-reported
Deployment details
Brex engineering, January 2026.
- Podcast episode
- Self-reported
Team
Brex engineering
Workload
Brex's codebase
Product version
Cursor beside Windsurf and Claude Code
Measurement
Usage trends by tool at renewal

ShopifyApr 22, 2026Latent SpaceAt Shopify, IDE tools such as Cursor hold steady while command-line agents grow faster.
Mikhail ParakhinCTOShopify
Every Shopify employee may choose a coding tool. December 2025 to April 2026.
Latent Space, published Apr 22, 2026Listen to the episode (opens Latent Space in a new tab)
Observation
At Shopify, IDE tools such as Cursor hold steady while command-line agents grow faster.
Takeaway
Expect editor seats to plateau as agents grow; size Cursor renewals on current usage.
What happened
Shopify's internal usage chart shows IDE tools such as Cursor and GitHub Copilot not shrinking but growing more slowly, while command-line agents such as Claude Code and Codex took off since December 2025.
“…tools, uh, that require IDEs such as, uh, GitHub, Copilot or Cursor, they’re not exactly shrinking, but they’re not growing as fast. Like, uh, red, red line is, is the IDE kind of tools.”
Mikhail Parakhin, Shopify, at 3:52 in the recording
Podcast episode
Organization usage reported
Deployment details
Every Shopify employee may choose a coding tool. December 2025 to April 2026.
Podcast episode
Organization usage reported
Team
Shopify, company-wide
Duration
About 5 months
Workload
Shopify's codebase
Product version
Cursor beside Copilot and command-line agents
Measurement
Internal usage by tool
CoinbaseJan 6, 2026AI Native Dev (Tessl)A Coinbase engineer does 80 to 90% of his work in Cursor and hands deep tasks to Claude Code.
Sepehr KhosraviMachine learning platform engineerCoinbase
One platform engineer at Coinbase, which tracks AI use per developer. January 2026.
AI Native Dev (Tessl), published Jan 6, 2026Listen to the episode (opens AI Native Dev (Tessl) in a new tab)
Observation
A Coinbase engineer does 80 to 90% of his work in Cursor and hands deep tasks to Claude Code.
Takeaway
Cursor holds the everyday editing seat; budget a terminal agent beside it for the hardest tasks.
What happened
Khosravi runs Cursor with Claude Code in the terminal beside it and does 80 to 90% of his work in Cursor, which he finds faster, lighter on tokens and able to switch models. For deep, difficult tasks he starts in Claude Code.
“Cursor's good cuz it gives you the visual ID. You can see what you're doing. It's faster than Claude Code is, uses less tokens, and you can switch between different AI models. But if you're trying to go deep on a task that's difficult, Claude Code does a lot more thinking, takes up a lot more tokens, but usually gives you a better engineered answer.”
Sepehr Khosravi, Coinbase, at 12:09, from automatic captions
Podcast episode
Self-reported
Deployment details
One platform engineer at Coinbase, which tracks AI use per developer. January 2026.
Podcast episode
Self-reported
Team
One engineer
Workload
Machine learning platform work
Product version
Cursor beside Claude Code
StripeFeb 19, 2026Stripe Dot Dev BlogStripe standardised on Cursor's rule format and syncs it to its other agents.
Alistair GrayEngineerStripe
Stripe engineering, February 2026.
Stripe Dot Dev Blog, published Feb 19, 2026Read the write-up (opens Stripe Dot Dev Blog in a new tab)
Observation
Stripe standardised on Cursor's rule format and syncs it to its other agents.
Takeaway
Cursor's rule files can become the company's shared source of project guidance across agents.
What happened
Stripe makes Cursor and Claude Code available for supervised work beside its own unattended agent, minions; the three are its most used coding agents. Stripe engineers write rules in Cursor's format, and Stripe syncs them into a format Claude Code reads so all three share the same guidance.
“We also now sync our Cursor rules into a format that Claude Code can read as well, so that our three most popular coding agents (minions, Cursor, and Claude Code) can all benefit from the guidance that lives in rule files that Stripe engineers are scaffolding in our codebase.”
Alistair Gray
Public engineering write-up
Organization practice described
Deployment details
Stripe engineering, February 2026.
Public engineering write-up
Organization practice described
Team
Stripe engineering
Workload
Stripe's codebase
Product version
Cursor beside Claude Code and minions

Evaluated it1

Mitch AldersonSoftware engineer and consultant, author on the Render blogRender
A from-scratch build and two production codebases, a Go API monorepo and an Astro.js site. August 2025.
Render Blog, published Aug 12, 2025Read the write-up (opens Render Blog in a new tab)
Observation
In a Render blog test across three codebases, Cursor scored highest of four agents.
Takeaway
Cursor's editor workflow scored best on setup and code quality; for big refactors he would pair it with a large-context model.
What happened
Alderson evaluated Cursor, Claude Code, Gemini CLI and Codex CLI over weeks of testing and scored Cursor 8 of 10, ahead of Claude Code and Gemini CLI at 6.8 and Codex at 6. Cursor led on setup, deployment and code quality.
“TL;DR: Cursor leads on setup speed, Docker/Render deployment, and code quality, while Claude Code is best for rapid prototypes and a productive terminal UX. Gemini CLI wins for large-context refactors, and Codex’s model is powerful but hampered by UX issues.”
Mitch Alderson
- Public practitioner write-up
- Scored by the author
Deployment details
A from-scratch build and two production codebases, a Go API monorepo and an Astro.js site. August 2025.
- Public practitioner write-up
- Scored by the author
Team
One consultant
Duration
Several weeks
Workload
Go API monorepo, Astro.js site, a from-scratch build
Product version
Cursor and three terminal agents
Model
Claude Sonnet 4 era
Measurement
Seven-category scorecard

Adopted it3

SalesforceSep 8, 2025Salesforce Engineering BlogSalesforce scoped Cursor to team-owned modules when it could not load the Core monolith.
Scott YanceyEVP of Software EngineeringSalesforce
Engineering organization. Teams work in one very large shared codebase.
Salesforce Engineering Blog, published Sep 8, 2025Read the write-up (opens Salesforce Engineering Blog in a new tab)
Observation
Salesforce scoped Cursor to team-owned modules when it could not load the Core monolith.
Takeaway
Scope the workspace to the code a team owns before judging the tool on a large monolith, and adopt it for the share of work it fits.
What happened
Yancey reports that Cursor could not handle the Core monolith, which at first left many developers unable to use it. The team configured workspaces to load only the modules each team owns and accepted that rare cross-module refactors need other methods. Yancey reports 95% developer engagement with AI tools.
Public engineering write-up
Organization metric reported
Deployment details
Engineering organization. Teams work in one very large shared codebase.
Public engineering write-up
Organization metric reported
Team
Salesforce engineering teams working in the Core monolith
Workload
Core monolith with hundreds of thousands of files
Measurement
Developer engagement with AI tools (95%)
SalesforceNov 5, 2025Salesforce Engineering BlogA Salesforce team cut a dashboard migration's engineering time by 75% once it wrote explicit rules for Cursor.
Lakshmi DontamsettiSenior Manager of Software Engineering, Mobile PerformanceSalesforce
Mobile Performance Engineering team. Monitoring dashboards moving from Splunk to Tableau.
Salesforce Engineering Blog, published Nov 5, 2025Read the write-up (opens Salesforce Engineering Blog in a new tab)
Observation
A Salesforce team cut a dashboard migration's engineering time by 75% once it wrote explicit rules for Cursor.
Takeaway
Write the rules and reference documents before the agent starts, and expect validation to become the bottleneck.
What happened
When Splunk was sunset, the team used Cursor with an MCP server to rebuild 20 monitoring dashboards in Tableau, work it had estimated at two sprints by hand. Explicit rules and a schema mapping document turned syntactically correct but wrong SQL into usable queries, and 20 to 30 percent of the work still needed human oversight.
Public engineering write-up
Team metric reported
Deployment details
Mobile Performance Engineering team. Monitoring dashboards moving from Splunk to Tableau.
Public engineering write-up
Team metric reported
Team
Salesforce Mobile Performance Engineering
Workload
Splunk to Tableau migration of about 240 queries
Product version
Cursor with an MCP server
Measurement
Engineering time (75% lower) and production monitoring availability (99%)
Alex GhiculescuApr 29, 2025Alex Ghiculescu's NewsletterTanda let about 40 developers choose Cursor or Claude Code, and Cursor adoption ran slightly higher.
Alex GhiculescuCo-founderTanda
SaaS company. 12-year-old Ruby on Rails codebase. About 40 developers.
Alex Ghiculescu's Newsletter, published Apr 29, 2025Read the write-up (opens Alex Ghiculescu's Newsletter in a new tab)
Observation
Tanda let about 40 developers choose Cursor or Claude Code, and Cursor adoption ran slightly higher.
Takeaway
Let engineers pick the agent that fits their editor, and keep agent drafts from bug reports out of the merge path until someone has scoped the fix.
What happened
Tanda offered every developer Cursor or Claude Code. In an informal survey, 8 used an agent for most of their coding and 11 for about half. Ghiculescu found Cursor made smaller, self-contained changes. Tanda avoided pushing automatic draft PRs from bug reports because subtly wrong fixes could pass its tests, and Ghiculescu estimates being about 20% more productive.
Public practitioner write-up (Tanda co-founder's newsletter)
Self-reported estimate
Deployment details
SaaS company. 12-year-old Ruby on Rails codebase. About 40 developers.
Public practitioner write-up (Tanda co-founder's newsletter)
Self-reported estimate
Team
Tanda engineering, about 40 developers
Workload
Mature Ruby on Rails SaaS codebase
Product version
Cursor and Claude Code
Measurement
Informal developer survey (8 mostly agent-written, 11 about half) and a 20% productivity self-estimate. His later posts through May 2026 add no measured figures, so check PR throughput and rework in your own pilot

Reported by others5

Natalie LungJun 3, 2026Simon Willison's WeblogUber capped spend at US$1,500 per employee a month on agent tools, naming Cursor, after using up its 2026 AI budget.
Natalie LungReporter, Bloomberg News, quoted by Simon WillisonBloomberg
Every Uber employee using agentic coding tools, 2026.
Simon Willison's Weblog, published Jun 3, 2026Read the report (opens Simon Willison's Weblog in a new tab)
Observation
Uber capped spend at US$1,500 per employee a month on agent tools, naming Cursor, after using up its 2026 AI budget.
Takeaway
Set per-member spend limits before usage grows, because agent spend outruns seat budgets.
What happened
Simon Willison's weblog quoted Bloomberg News on Jun 3, 2026: after Uber spent its 2026 AI budget in four months, it limited every employee to US$1,500 of monthly token spending per agentic coding tool, a cap a spokesperson said applies to tools such as Cursor and Claude Code.
“The rideshare giant is limiting all employees to $1,500 in monthly token spending per AI coding tool, an Uber spokesperson said in response to a Bloomberg News inquiry. That means spending on one tool doesn’t have a bearing on the budget for another. The limits, which have been instituted in recent months, only apply to agentic coding software such as Cursor or Anthropic PBC’s Claude Code.”
Bloomberg News, quoted by Simon Willison
Second-hand news report (Simon Willison's weblog, quoting Bloomberg News)
Spokesperson statement reported
Deployment details
Every Uber employee using agentic coding tools, 2026.
Second-hand news report (Simon Willison's weblog, quoting Bloomberg News)
Spokesperson statement reported
Team
Uber, all employees
Workload
Agentic coding across Uber
Product version
Cursor and Claude Code
Measurement
Monthly token spend per tool
Benj EdwardsApr 17, 2025arstechnica.comCursor's support bot invented a login policy, and users cancelled.
Benj EdwardsAI reporterArs Technica
Cursor users switching machines, April 2025.
arstechnica.com, published Apr 17, 2025Read the report (opens arstechnica.com in a new tab)
Observation
Cursor's support bot invented a login policy, and users cancelled.
Takeaway
An AI support agent speaks for the vendor; ask how support escalates to people before a team depends on the tool.
What happened
Ars Technica reported on Apr 17, 2025 that a session change logged Cursor users out when they switched machines, and Cursor's AI support agent told one user it was a new policy that did not exist. The user cancelled and said their workplace was purging Cursor completely, other users announced cancellations, and co-founder Michael Truell apologized and refunded the user.
““I literally just cancelled my sub,” wrote the original Reddit poster, adding that their workplace was now “purging it completely.”…”
Ars Technica
Second-hand news report (Ars Technica)
User accounts reported
Deployment details
Cursor users switching machines, April 2025.
Second-hand news report (Ars Technica)
User accounts reported
Team
Cursor users
Workload
Multi-machine use
Product version
Cursor
Jensen HuangOct 8, 2025CNBCNVIDIA's CEO says all of its roughly 40,000 engineers use Cursor.
Jensen HuangCEONVIDIA
NVIDIA engineering, October 2025.
CNBC, published Oct 8, 2025Read the report (opens CNBC in a new tab)
Observation
NVIDIA's CEO says all of its roughly 40,000 engineers use Cursor.
Takeaway
An executive's statement shows a mandate with no measured result behind it; ask for usage data before treating it as proof.
What happened
On CNBC on Oct 8, 2025, Jensen Huang stated that all of NVIDIA's engineers use Cursor, citing about 40,000 engineers. NVIDIA published no usage or productivity figures with the statement.
“Cursor, Cursor is AI software coder. Is incredibly useful. All of our engineers use it. We have some 40,000 engineers. Almost every one of them are going to use it, and they're they're loving it.”
Jensen Huang
Second-hand news report (CNBC Squawk Box transcript)
Executive statement, no measurement
Deployment details
NVIDIA engineering, October 2025.
Second-hand news report (CNBC Squawk Box transcript)
Executive statement, no measurement
Team
NVIDIA engineering, about 40,000 engineers
Product version
Cursor
James FarisJul 29, 2026businessinsider.comDisney is keeping Cursor while it drops Copilot, Business Insider reported.
James FarisReporterBusiness Insider
Disney's US technology organization, August 2026.
businessinsider.com, published Jul 29, 2026Read the report (opens businessinsider.com in a new tab)
Observation
Disney is keeping Cursor while it drops Copilot, Business Insider reported.
Takeaway
Cursor survives consolidation where engineers already work in it.
What happened
Business Insider reported on Jul 29, 2026, from an internal message, that Disney is dropping GitHub Copilot, Kiro and Amazon Q for US staff in August while keeping Cursor and Claude Enterprise. One staffer said Copilot was unnecessary once they had Cursor and Kiro.
“"Once I got Cursor and Kiro, there was no need to use it," this staffer said.”
A Disney staffer, quoted by Business Insider
Second-hand news report (Business Insider, from a Disney internal message)
Employee accounts reported
Deployment details
Disney's US technology organization, August 2026.
Second-hand news report (Business Insider, from a Disney internal message)
Employee accounts reported
Team
Disney technology staff, US
Workload
Software development across Disney
Product version
Cursor kept, beside Claude Enterprise
Maxwell ZeffJun 3, 2025TechCrunchA Swift startup founder moved from Windsurf to Cursor when Windsurf lost direct Claude access.
Maxwell ZeffSenior AI reporter, reporting on a Swift startup founderTechCrunch
A Swift-focused startup, May 2025.
Its own announcement, published Jun 3, 2025Read the report (opens the announcement in a new tab)
Observation
A Swift startup founder moved from Windsurf to Cursor when Windsurf lost direct Claude access.
Takeaway
Model access decides editor choice; check which providers each editor can reach on your plan.
What happened
TechCrunch reported on Jun 3, 2025 that Mannak, a Windsurf customer since late 2024, had switched to Cursor in recent weeks to work with Claude 4, after Anthropic limited Windsurf's direct access to Claude models.
“While Mannak has been a Windsurf customer since late 2024, he’s switched to using Cursor in recent weeks so that he can vibe code more easily with Claude 4.”
TechCrunch
Second-hand news report (TechCrunch)
Self-reported
Deployment details
A Swift-focused startup, May 2025.
Second-hand news report (TechCrunch)
Self-reported
Team
One founder
Workload
Swift development
Product version
Cursor, after Windsurf
Model
Claude 4

Switched to or from it3

At Applied Intuition, Claude Code replaced Cursor as the company's most used coding tool.

Indeed's developers paid for Cursor themselves before the company moved to agents.

At Superhuman, Cursor let a backend engineer build front ends, until Claude Code replaced it.

Run it beside another tool4

Brex lets employees pick Cursor, Windsurf or Claude Code credits and buys few seats of each.

At Shopify, IDE tools such as Cursor hold steady while command-line agents grow faster.

A Coinbase engineer does 80 to 90% of his work in Cursor and hands deep tasks to Claude Code.

Stripe standardised on Cursor's rule format and syncs it to its other agents.

Evaluated it1

In a Render blog test across three codebases, Cursor scored highest of four agents.

Adopted it3

Salesforce scoped Cursor to team-owned modules when it could not load the Core monolith.

A Salesforce team cut a dashboard migration's engineering time by 75% once it wrote explicit rules for Cursor.

Tanda let about 40 developers choose Cursor or Claude Code, and Cursor adoption ran slightly higher.

Reported by others5

Uber capped spend at US$1,500 per employee a month on agent tools, naming Cursor, after using up its 2026 AI budget.

Cursor's support bot invented a login policy, and users cancelled.

NVIDIA's CEO says all of its roughly 40,000 engineers use Cursor.

Disney is keeping Cursor while it drops Copilot, Business Insider reported.

A Swift startup founder moved from Windsurf to Cursor when Windsurf lost direct Claude access.