Cursor

Clone the repository

Clone context-mode somewhere on your machine.

git clone https://github.com/mksglu/context-mode.git

Link the plugin into Cursor

On macOS and Linux, symlink the checkout into Cursor's local plugins directory.

ln -s "$PWD/context-mode" ~/.cursor/plugins/local/context-mode

On Windows, Cursor does not follow symlinks or junctions, so copy the folder with robocopy instead.

robocopy . "$env:USERPROFILE\.cursor\plugins\local\context-mode" /MIR

Restart Cursor

Restart so the MCP server, hooks, and rules register. The plugin appears in Settings → Plugins as "Context Mode (Local)".

Install the package

npm install -g context-mode

Register the MCP server

Create .cursor/mcp.json in your project root (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for a global install).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context-mode": {
      "command": "context-mode"
    }
  }
}

Register the hooks

Create .cursor/hooks.json (or ~/.cursor/hooks.json for global). Each command is context-mode hook cursor <event> with a lowercase event name. This is the shipped template (configs/cursor/hooks.json): the preToolUse entry carries a matcher so the hook only fires for the tools context-mode routes.

{
  "version": 1,
  "hooks": {
    "preToolUse": [
      {
        "command": "context-mode hook cursor pretooluse",
        "matcher": "Shell|Read|Grep|WebFetch|mcp_web_fetch|mcp_fetch_tool|Task|MCP:ctx_execute|MCP:ctx_execute_file|MCP:ctx_batch_execute|MCP:(?!ctx_)"
      }
    ],
    "postToolUse": [
      { "command": "context-mode hook cursor posttooluse" }
    ],
    "stop": [
      { "command": "context-mode hook cursor stop" }
    ]
  }
}

The template above wires the required set. Two more native hooks are available:

• sessionStart — state restore after compaction.
• afterAgentResponse — fire-and-forget; receives the full response text.

Copy the routing rules file

The sessionStart hook handles state restore, but copying the .mdc rules file gives the model belt-and-braces routing awareness — Cursor accepts additional_context in hook responses but does not surface it to the model, so the rules file and MCP tool descriptions carry routing enforcement.

mkdir -p .cursor/rules
cp node_modules/context-mode/configs/cursor/context-mode.mdc .cursor/rules/context-mode.mdc

Restart Cursor

Restart Cursor or open a new agent session so the server, hooks, and rules load.