Quick-Start: Cursor IDE ⚡

Hey, welcome back! Your VS Code is now fully set up for Revit API and pyRevit — autocomplete and all. In this lesson we'll repeat the same steps for Cursor, so you have a second (arguably even better) code editor ready to go.

There's one step that won't work right away like it did in VS Code, but I'll show you exactly how to fix it so you end up with an identical setup in both editors.

First launch and sign-in

Let's pick up right where we stopped after installing Cursor. Go ahead and launch it.

1. You'll see the Cursor setup wizard — click Finish.

2. Now it asks you to sign in. If you don't have an account yet, sign up. If you already have one, just log in.

3. Free version? Totally fine. Paid version? Also fine. I'm on the Pro plan, but the setup experience is exactly the same on free — don't worry about it.

Switch from the agentic view to the editor

First thing you'll notice: Cursor looks very different. Like, "whoa Erik, you promised the same thing!"

And that's right — what you're looking at is the agentic view. It's built for fully AI-driven coding, where you delegate everything to the AI. VS Code has this too, by the way — they copied pretty much the same thing from each other.

We're not interested in that yet. That mode makes sense once you already understand the Revit API and can delegate more. For now:

1. Click the button to switch to the editor window. (The button might move in future versions — they change things quite often.)

2. It might ask you to install some plugins — just skip that.

3. Now you're in the regular editor, and you'll see it looks pretty much the same as VS Code. The theme is a bit different (we'll solve that later), and the panels sit at the top instead of the side — we'll fix that too.

🖼️ [IMAGE: Cursor's agentic view on first launch, with the button to switch to the editor window highlighted]

Open your project and install the Python extension

The procedure is basically identical to VS Code:

1. Open the same project — choose the .extension folder you created previously (mine is called EF setup).

2. Go to Extensions.

3. Search for Python, select it, and click Install. Wait for it to finish.

But here's the thing: when installation completes and you click on a Python file, you won't see the Python environments button. And that's weird, right?

⚠️ Important: This happens because Microsoft blocks the Python environments feature outside of VS Code — they want to keep it exclusive. Luckily, it's simple to work around, and that's exactly what we'll do next.

Fix the missing Python button

We need to change a few settings to get the exact same experience as VS Code. Three small steps.

1. Move the activity bar to the side

1. Hold Ctrl + , to open the settings (or click at the top, type the arrow key >, and search for "settings" → Cursor Settings).

2. Go to the VS Code settings section.

3. Search for orientation.

4. Find Workbench › Activity Bar: Orientation and set it to vertical.

5. Cursor will ask to restart — that's totally fine, let it restart.

After the restart you'll land in the agentic view again (there's a setting to change that default). Go back to the editor and — look at that — the icons are now on the side, just like VS Code. Open your project again.

🖼️ [IMAGE: Cursor settings page with "Workbench › Activity Bar: Orientation" set to vertical]

2. Enable the environments extension in settings JSON

This time we'll edit the settings file directly:

1. Click at the top, type >, search for user settings, and select Open User Settings (JSON).

2. This file holds all your Cursor settings — VS Code has exactly the same file.

3. Add a comma after the last setting and add this new line:

{
    "python.useEnvironmentsExtension": true
}

You might see the button still isn't showing up. I know, it's a little annoying bug — sometimes it appears right away, sometimes it doesn't. One more step.

3. Install the Python Environments extension from the terminal

Open a new terminal in Cursor and run this special command:

cursor --install-extension ms-python.vscode-python-envs

Let it do its thing — and now you have the Python environments button right there in the sidebar. A little weird that it's "not supposed" to be in Cursor, but now we have it, and it's amazing.

🖼️ [IMAGE: Cursor sidebar showing the Python environments button after installing ms-python.vscode-python-envs]

💡 Tip: If you see some errors pop up after this — totally fine. I always saw them too. As long as the Python button is there, just ignore them.

Your venvs are already here

Now click on that Python button and check the virtual environments. Notice anything? Your venvs are already there. Isn't that great?

That's because the venvs live inside your project folder, and both editors open the same project — so they're shared between VS Code and Cursor. Zero extra setup. We're now configured for both.

Test run (and let the agent fix the error)

Let's make sure everything actually runs. Open your test file and try the classic:

print("Hello World")

The execute button is still there — click it, and you should see Hello World in the terminal.

Now, you might also see an error in the terminal: it tried to activate your virtual environment and couldn't. Here's my favorite way to deal with that:

1. Copy the error message.

2. Open the agent panel right there in Cursor.

3. Paste the error and ask: "Can you fix it?"

In my case it was a missing execution policy permission — the agent gave me one command to run, and everything was fine after that.

💡 Tip: Honestly, these terminal errors are irrelevant to us — we won't execute Python through the terminal anyway. But if seeing them bugs you, just hand the error to the agent. They know it better. Trust me.

Check your autocomplete

While the agent works on that, let's check the important part — autocomplete. Type:

from Autodesk.Revit.DB import Viewport

You'll see it works instantly — suggestions pop up as you type. Now switch your Python interpreter to the Revit 2026 venv and type the same thing. You'll notice the suggestions change to match that API version right away. That means your virtual environments are set up correctly.

And let's test pyRevit too:

from pyrevit import forms

forms.alert("Cursor is ready!")

You can see forms.alert and friends show up in the autocomplete — so pyRevit works as well.

🖼️ [IMAGE: Autocomplete dropdown in Cursor showing Revit API suggestions while typing "from Autodesk.Revit.DB import"]

And that's it — VS Code and Cursor are both set up correctly, with Revit API autocomplete and pyRevit autocomplete.

Personally, I use Cursor as my main editor and keep VS Code as a backup — sometimes I even open them side by side (different icons, super convenient). Try both and judge for yourself which one you like more. Honestly, they're quite the same.

What's next

Both editors are ready — but right now your virtual environments live in a spot we can improve. In the next lesson, we'll move your venvs to a better location so your whole setup stays clean and portable.