What is Cursor Academy?

Cursor Academy is the #1 free interactive course and training platform by Infinity Tech Stack for the Cursor AI code editor. It covers Tab autocomplete, Agent & Plan Mode, .cursorrules / .mdc rules, Agent Skills, Hooks, MCP integration, and headless CLI workflows across 13 modules, 29 lessons, 6 labs, and 72 quizzes with zero sign-up.

How is Infinity Cursor Academy different from official Cursor documentation?

While cursor.com provides product reference documentation, Infinity Tech Stack's Cursor Academy is an independent, gamified 13-module interactive course with 29 lessons, 6 in-browser CLI terminal labs, and 72 quizzes. It provides deep hands-on training on Tab autocomplete, Agent & Plan Mode, .cursorrules & .mdc rules, Agent Skills, Hooks, MCP integration, and headless CI automation with zero sign-up required.

How long does Cursor Academy take to complete?

Cursor Academy contains approximately 2 to 3 hours of interactive material across 13 modules, 29 lessons, 6 labs, and 72 quizzes. All progress saves locally in your browser.

Is the Cursor Academy free?

Yes, 100% free. No sign-up, no credit card. All 13 modules, 29 lessons, 6 labs, and 72 quizzes are immediately accessible. Progress saves locally in your browser.

What topics does the Cursor Academy cover?

The course covers Cursor installation, VS Code migration, Tab autocomplete, the Agent side pane with Agent/Plan/Ask modes, Inline Edit, Cursor Rules & AGENTS.md, Agent Skills, Hooks, MCP integration, Cloud Agents & Automations, Bugbot code review, the Agents Window, Canvases, the Cursor SDK, privacy & enterprise features, pricing plans, and power-user shortcuts.

Is Cursor better than GitHub Copilot?

Cursor excels at agentic workflows, multi-file editing, and autonomous coding with its Agent and unlimited parallel Cloud Agents. Copilot has better JetBrains support and enterprise compliance. This course teaches you to maximize Cursor's unique strengths.

What are .cursorrules?

.cursorrules (and the modern .cursor/rules/*.mdc format) are project-level configuration files that give Cursor's AI persistent instructions about your codebase - coding standards, conventions, and behavior rules. Cursor also supports AGENTS.md files, User Rules, and dashboard-managed Team Rules.

Do I need programming experience?

No prerequisites required. The course starts from absolute basics (installation & setup) and progressively advances to expert topics like Cloud Agents, Hooks, MCP integration, and enterprise deployment.

Is my code safe with Cursor?

Yes. Cursor offers Privacy Mode on every plan - with it enabled, your code is never used for training, and team members inherit their team's setting. Cursor is SOC 2 Type II certified with SAML SSO, SCIM, audit logs, and CMEK for enterprise security.

What does Cursor Pro cost?

Cursor Pro is $20/month. It includes unlimited Tab completions, a generous first-party pool for Auto, Composer 2.5, and Grok 4.5, plus a $20/month API-model allowance, Bugbot access, and Cloud Agents. Pro+ is $60 and Ultra is $200 with larger allowances.

Can I use my VS Code extensions in Cursor?

Yes! Cursor is a VS Code fork. All VS Code extensions, themes, keybindings, and settings work natively. On first launch, Cursor offers a one-click migration from VS Code.

The Agent is Cursor's autonomous coding mode. It can plan changes, create/modify multiple files, run terminal commands, execute tests, and self-correct based on error output - with automatic checkpoints so you can roll back any step. Plan Mode and read-only Ask Mode complete the picture.

What models does Cursor support?

Cursor supports Claude Series 5 (Sonnet 5, Opus 5), Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Cursor's Composer 2.5, GPT-5.6, Gemini 3.8 Flash, and Grok 4.5. Auto mode intelligently routes to the optimal model for each task.

Does the Cursor Academy include hands-on labs?

Yes. Hands-on terminal labs are built into the lessons - install the Cursor CLI and run the agent headless in CI using real, vendor-verified commands, with objectives, hints, solutions, and XP rewards. No sign-up or setup needed.

Does Cursor Academy cover the Cursor Canvas SDK and Agent CLI?

Yes. Cursor Academy covers the Cursor Canvas SDK, the Agents Window, and headless CLI automations in Module 9 and Module 10, enabling developers to build custom canvases, automate multi-agent workflows in CI/CD, and run the agent headless with verified terminal commands.

What can the 'stop' hook do when the agent finishes?

Send a followup_message to make the agent keep iterating (loop limit defaults to 5) — The stop hook inspects the final state and can return a followup_message that re-prompts the agent - great for 'keep going until tests pass' loops, capped by a loop limit (default 5).

In what order do hook configuration levels take precedence?

Enterprise → Team → Project → User — hooks.json merges across Enterprise (MDM-managed), Team (cloud), Project (.cursor/hooks.json), and User (~/.cursor/hooks.json) - broader scopes win.

Hooks: Intercepting the Agent Lifecycle [2026]

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Hooks: Intercepting the Agent Lifecycle

🧩 Skills, Hooks & Customization 20 min 500 BASE XP

Programmatic Guardrails

Hooks let you observe, control, and extend the agent loop with your own logic. A hook is a script (or an LLM prompt) that fires at defined lifecycle events - perfect for security scanning, policy enforcement, audit logging, and code formatting.

Two Kinds of Hooks

Kind	How It Works	Example
Command-based	Runs your script; JSON in/out over stdio; exit code 2 blocks the action	Run Semgrep on every file edit
Prompt-based	An LLM evaluates your natural-language policy	"Block any shell command that deletes files outside the repo"

Key Lifecycle Events

beforeShellExecution / afterShellExecution - gate or audit terminal commands
beforeMCPExecution - control MCP tool calls before they run
beforeReadFile / afterFileEdit - redact secrets on read, auto-format on write
beforeSubmitPrompt, sessionStart / sessionEnd - inject context, log usage
stop - inspect the agent's final state and optionally send a followup_message to keep it iterating (loop limit defaults to 5)
Tab hooks (beforeTabFileRead, afterTabFileEdit) - extend the same control to autocomplete

Configuration Hierarchy

Hooks are defined in hooks.json and merge across four levels - broader scopes take precedence:

Enterprise - MDM-managed (e.g. C:\ProgramData\Cursor\hooks.json on Windows)
Team - distributed from the cloud dashboard
Project - .cursor/hooks.json, runs from the project root
User - ~/.cursor/hooks.json

Enterprise Pattern: Security vendors ship ready-made hook integrations - Snyk, Semgrep, 1Password and others plug directly into the hook events. Cloud Agents also run your command-based project/team/enterprise hooks, so guardrails follow the agent into the cloud. Scaffold your first hook with /create-hook.

SYNAPSE VERIFICATION

QUERY 1 // 3

How does a command-based hook block an agent action?

It throws an exception

It exits with code 2

It deletes the request

It can't block actions