Using Claude Code and Cursor Together: A Practical Setup Guide

You do not have to choose between Claude Code and Cursor. Plenty of developers run both: Cursor for the in-editor flow, Claude Code for the heavy autonomous work. The combination is genuinely powerful.

The problem is that the two tools do not talk to each other. You plan something in Cursor's agent, switch to Claude Code for the long implementation, and the second tool has never met you. You re-explain the project, re-state the decisions, and re-litigate the constraints. Twice the tools, twice the amnesia.

This guide fixes that. How to route work between the two, how to keep your conventions in sync, and how to give both tools one shared memory so the handoff stops costing you twenty minutes.

Part 1: Route tasks by shape, not by habit

The biggest mistake people make running two AI tools is using whichever one is open. Route deliberately instead.

Give Cursor the in-editor work. Surgical edits where you want to watch every diff. Exploring unfamiliar code with the agent in the sidebar. Quick refactors in a file you are already reading. Anything where staying in flow inside the editor matters more than raw autonomy. Cursor's Tab completions and Cmd+K inline edits shine on small, fast loops, and its Agent mode handles multi-file changes while you supervise.

Give Claude Code the autonomous work. Big migrations across dozens of files. "Rebuild this subsystem and run the tests until they pass." Background tasks you want running while you keep editing in Cursor. Anything where you would rather delegate the whole goal than supervise each step. Plan mode plus subagents make it the better fire-and-forget machine.

A useful rule of thumb: if you want to watch it happen, Cursor. If you want to come back to it done, Claude Code.

Part 2: Keep conventions in sync (and know where files stop helping)

Both tools read project instruction files: CLAUDE.md for Claude Code, Cursor's rules files for Cursor. Put your real conventions in both: architecture, naming, error handling, testing expectations, the working agreement (plan before multi-file edits, run tests after changes, ask before destructive commands).

But know the limits. These files are static instructions, not memory. They do not remember what you decided on Tuesday, what you tried and abandoned, or where the refactor stopped on Friday. And now you maintain two of them, which means they can drift: you update the rule in one file, forget the other, and the two agents start giving you contradictory advice.

Static files are the floor, not the ceiling. The ceiling is memory both tools can read.

Part 3: One shared memory across both

This is the piece that turns two disconnected tools into one workflow. Vilix AI is a shared memory and work-state layer that connects to both Claude Code and Cursor (and Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, ChatGPT, any MCP-compatible AI) over MCP, tied to one account.

Connect Cursor to your Vilix AI account over MCP. Connect Claude Code to the same account, separately, over MCP. Each client needs its own connection; one approval does not configure the others. Then enable the memory tools in each client.

What changes:

• Decisions persist. Tell Cursor's agent "we're not doing that approach anymore" and Claude Code knows too, because both read the same memory. Correct something once and it is corrected everywhere. If the two tools ever save conflicting info, the most recent save wins, so the newest version is always what the AI sees.
• Tasks are shared. Break work into projects and tasks in the shared list and both tools see the same board. Claude Code can pick up a task Cursor's agent created, with full context attached.
• Rules load everywhere. Your standing rules live in one place and load into every session, so you stop maintaining the same instruction in two files.
• History is real. Full conversation exchanges are saved, not just extracted facts, and retrieval is semantic and recency-aware: it finds what you meant and pulls what is relevant instead of dumping the archive.

The honest caveat. The model decides when to call the memory tools, and models can be lazy about it. If an agent ever seems to have forgotten the setup, nudge it: "check Vilix AI for context first." Then it works. That is how MCP works, and it is worth knowing upfront.

Part 4: A day in the life

Here is what the combined workflow actually feels like once memory is in place.

Morning, Cursor. You open the editor and the agent calls get_context. It loads yesterday's state: the decisions, the open tasks, where the migration stopped. You explore a tricky module with the agent in the sidebar, sketch the plan together, and save the key decisions with save_turn. No briefing. It just knows.

Midday, handoff to Claude Code. The implementation is a forty-file change, so you hand it to Claude Code in the terminal and keep editing in Cursor. Claude Code pulls the same memory: the plan, the decisions, the conventions. It works through the migration, runs the tests, iterates. You check in, review diffs, redirect when needed.

Afternoon, back in Cursor. The migration is done. You do the careful review pass in the editor, where you can see every change in context. Anything you correct gets saved once and is visible to both tools going forward.

Evening, phone. You think of an edge case on the couch. The same memory is there on your phone, because it is cloud-hosted and tied to your account, not to any device. One memory, every device, every app.

No re-explaining. No drift. No twenty-minute briefing tax every time you switch tools.

Part 5: The setup checklist

If you are starting from zero, do it in this order:

1. Write one conventions doc per tool. CLAUDE.md for Claude Code, Cursor rules files for Cursor. Same content, both places. Update both when conventions change.
2. Connect both tools to Vilix AI over MCP. Same account, separate connections, memory tools enabled in each client.
3. Seed the memory. In your first session, have the agent save the project state: what the project is, the key decisions so far, your standing rules, the open tasks.
4. Build the handoff habit. Start sessions with get_context (or a nudge to check memory first). Save turns as you work. When you switch tools, the context comes with you automatically.
5. Prune occasionally. Review your rules now and then, delete stale memories freely. Stale memory is worse than no memory.

Why Vilix AI fits this setup

It is cloud-hosted, so there is zero infrastructure to manage. It stores full conversations, so you can revisit what was actually said, not just a summary. Your data is portable: export everything or delete individual memories (or the whole account) anytime, no waiting period. There is a free plan, and the 7-day Pro trial needs no credit card. See the plans here: https://vilix.ai/pricing?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=claude-code-cursor-together

Running Claude Code and Cursor together is the right call for a lot of developers. The missing piece was never a third tool. It was one memory underneath both of them: https://vilix.ai?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=claude-code-cursor-together