So this is clearly sort of a half built feature but I’d like it to be more intentional. I’ve worked out that if I ask Feature run command in a terminal it can monitor it’ll launch the terminal in the editor. This is great for jest, vitest, and especially running a dev console. I’m sure other frameworks will find it similarly useful.
The problem is that (a) it only works in composer and (b) I can’t drag a running terminal into context. So by the time I realize I need Cursor to analyze a terminal output it’s too late, I have to recreate the whole thing in a monitored terminal, which means the time to shut down other terminals, run a new one via prompt, compile, potentially reload and futher compile, run the command set again, and THEN show it to Cursor.
Still worth it.
Just a giant PITA.
Side issue
CMD-K is your focus mode in Cursor but it’s a terminal primitive for clear. That can be almost as annoying a default as 1Password’s browser hotkey.
Can you do a more in depth explaination – I only have like a 5% understanding of what youre explaining, and 0% understanding on how to launch “monitored terminal” and 0% on how to parse
…“t if I ask Feature run command in a terminal it can monitor it’ll launch the terminal in the editor. …”
I think I want what you want, but I need a better understanding of how to fidddle me stix.
I may have tapped into an unreleased feature? It stopped working about 4h after making this post. Used to be I could type “Run pnpm dev in a terminal that you can monitor” and it would pop the terminal into an editor window, adding it to context like a file. Best feature since the addition of agents. It let me run both unit testing and server logs right into the Composer review without any copy & paste.
Thing of beauty.
Okay now it’s back. It’s just very inconsistent.
I ask my yolomode instructions to do this and it’s reliable enough in doing what you said.
Yeah I’ve worked out it’s internally called a background terminal. Odd feature in that it’s incredibly powerful while also being totally undocumented and kind of partially integrated. You can create one if you know how to do it but you can’t drag or add it into context after the fact.
It also doesn’t know how to stop and start it’s own processes, so it tends to open a new terminal every time it wants to restart a low level service, whcih means it increments ports like crazy during certian types of work.
