The future of Cursor

Vercel Ship '26 · October 2026

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Slide 1: Blank slide
Slide 2: SpaceX logo animation
Slide 3: The Future of Cursor. Matt Palmer, Ship '26
Slide 4: Matt Palmer, @mattyp. Developer experience and community
Slide 5: I have a confession
Slide 6: MNPI. Dana Whitfield (Legal) is typing
Slide 7: Where we’re headed
Slide 8: Where we’re headed: SpaceXSI is for builders
Slide 9: Where we’re headed: SpaceXSI is for builders
Slide 10: Where we’re headed: SpaceXSI is for builders. We make tools for people
Slide 11: Where we’re headed: SpaceXSI is for builders. We make tools for people. We’ll keep building them
Slide 12: Where we’re headed: we’re going to keep making Cursor better
Slide 13: Today: how I build with Projects, Cloud Agents, and Vercel
Slide 14: You'll leave with: long running agents
Slide 15: You'll leave with: long running agents, feedback loops (for agents!)
Slide 16: You'll leave with: long running agents, feedback loops, and inputs, outputs, software
Slide 17: An agent with a computer: one chat, an agent, and its own computer with a repo, browser, and apps
Slide 18: An agent with a computer, labeled Projects: one chat, an agent, and its own computer
Slide 19: A Cursor agent chat beside the agent's own desktop
Slide 20: A Cursor Projects chat with the agent's computer open
Slide 21: An agent with a computer, labeled Projects: one chat, an agent, and its own computer
Slide 22: An agent with a computer, labeled Projects and Cursor & Bot
Slide 23: An agent with a computer, labeled Projects and Cursor & Bot. It helps to be in the cloud
Slide 24: Wipe between the Slack template and live Slack
Slide 25: The botpfp.com avatar editor
Slide 26: An agent editing a clip in mcut
Slide 27: Projects
Slide 28: Then: configure development environment
Slide 29: Then: configure development environment, dogfood the product
Slide 30: Then: configure development environment, dogfood the product, break things
Slide 31: Then: configure development environment, dogfood the product, break things, fix and improve the product
Slide 32: Now: configure agent environment
Slide 33: Now: configure agent environment, configure agent feedback loops
Slide 34: Now: configure agent environment, configure agent feedback loops, communicate your vision
Slide 35: Now: configure agent environment, configure agent feedback loops, communicate your vision, fix and improve the product
Slide 36: As engineers...
Slide 37: As engineers... we’ve always automated
Slide 38: As engineers... we’ve always automated. Why should agents be any different?
Slide 39: Prompt: Make a video of Slack, moving the way Slack moves.
Slide 40: Prompt: Make a video of Slack, moving the way Slack moves. Reply: Ok, bet
Slide 41: Prompt: Make a video of Slack, moving the way Slack moves. Reply: Ok, bet. Result: temu slack
Slide 42: An agent recording Slack in its own browser
Slide 43: Wipe between the Slack template and live Slack
Slide 44: Easing curves for the Slack thread and agent templates
Slide 45: Camera scale over time: template versus the Slack reference
Slide 46: Slack easing curves, animated
Slide 47: A Slack thread rendered from a template
Slide 48: Close-up wipe between the Slack thread template and live Slack
Slide 49: A Slack thread rendered from a template
Slide 50: The inner loop: do, check, done
Slide 51: The inner loop: do, check, done, and fix
Slide 52: The inner agent loop: do, check, fix, done. What is “done”?
Slide 53: The outer loop wraps the inner loop: do, check, fix
Slide 54: The outer loop: inputs (references, preferences, access) feed the inner loop, and outputs (artifacts, screenshots, analytics) go to a judge
Slide 55: How?
Slide 56: The outer loop, annotated: examples, product
Slide 57: The outer loop, annotated: examples, product; development environment
Slide 58: The outer loop, annotated: examples, product; development environment; previews, motion curves
Slide 59: Is this software? Kinda
Slide 60: Is this software engineering? Yes.
Slide 61: The botpfp.com avatar editor
Slide 62: Inner loop: a Cursor Cloud Project
Slide 63: Inner loop: a Cursor Cloud Project, a working environment
Slide 64: Inner loop: a Cursor Cloud Project, a working environment, integrating with Vercel
Slide 65: Build history for the botpfp.com project
Slide 66: Environment settings and secrets for the agent
Slide 67: Outer loop: skill definitions
Slide 68: Outer loop: skill definitions, references
Slide 69: Outer loop: skill definitions, references, verification loops
Slide 70: Outer loop: skill definitions, references, verification loops, pstack and poteto mode
Slide 71: Improving inputs
Slide 72: Improving inputs: how do I build a flywheel?
Slide 73: botpfp.com on a phone
Slide 74: A feedback board for botpfp.com
Slide 75: Improving outputs
Slide 76: Improving outputs: how do I give better feedback?
Slide 77: Swiping through botpfp.com avatars
Slide 78: A preset workbench comparing a generated avatar with its reference
Slide 79: botpfp.com analytics: top presets, most exported characters, and visits by referrer
Slide 80: The outer loop wraps the inner loop: do, check, fix
Slide 81: The outer loop: inputs (references, preferences, access) feed the inner loop
Slide 82: The outer loop: inputs (references, preferences, access) feed the inner loop, and outputs (artifacts, screenshots, analytics) go to a judge
Slide 83: The outer loop, annotated: reference swiper, user feedback
Slide 84: The outer loop, annotated: reference swiper, user feedback; analytics, DialKit
Slide 85: The outer loop, annotated: reference swiper, user feedback; analytics, DialKit
Slide 86: The outer loop can be software
Slide 87: The ladder: do (workflow)
Slide 88: The ladder: do (workflow), codify (skill)
Slide 89: The ladder: do (workflow), codify (skill), generalize (abstraction)
Slide 90: The ladder: do (workflow), codify (skill), generalize (abstraction), automate (schedule)
Slide 91: The ladder: do (workflow), codify (skill), generalize (abstraction), automate (schedule)
Slide 92: When it breaks: understand
Slide 93: When it breaks: understand, encode
Slide 94: When it breaks: understand, encode, generalize
Slide 95: When it breaks: understand, encode, generalize, verify
Slide 96: When it breaks: understand, encode, generalize, verify. You’re not a victim of slop!
Slide 97: When it breaks: understand, encode, generalize, verify. You’re not a victim of slop! You’re an engineer!
Slide 98: Let’s build an editor
Slide 99: The old way: build, test, iterate
Slide 100: The old way: build, test, iterate. For a video editor, this is a long loop
Slide 101: The flip. Prompt: Edit this clip in mcut to match my hand edit.
Slide 102: The flip. Prompt: Edit this clip in mcut to match my hand edit. Reply: On it. I'll report every bug I hit.
Slide 103: The loop: edit by hand
Slide 104: The loop: edit by hand, teach (wow)
Slide 105: The loop: edit by hand, teach (wow), observe
Slide 106: The loop: edit by hand, teach (wow), observe, correct
Slide 107: An agent editing a talking-head clip in mcut
Slide 108: Removing retakes in one step in mcut
Slide 109: An agent editing a clip in mcut
Slide 110: An agent finishing an edit in mcut
Slide 111: How?
Slide 112: Pick the right environment
Slide 113: Pick the right environment: Cursor
Slide 114: Pick the right environment: Cursor, Vercel
Slide 115: Pick the right environment. One chat, many agents
Slide 116: Pick the right environment. One chat, many agents
Slide 117: Pick the right environment. One chat, many agents. Don’t live with broken windows
Slide 118: Pick the right environment. One chat, many agents. Don’t live with broken windows. Make it, then make it better
Slide 119: Pick the right environment. One chat, many agents. Don’t live with broken windows. Make it, then make it better. Conquer slop
Slide 120: Pick the right environment. One chat, many agents. Don’t live with broken windows. Make it, then make it better. Conquer slop
Slide 121: One chat, an agent, and its own computer with a repo, browser, and apps
Slide 122: The outer loop: inputs (references, preferences, access) feed the inner loop, and outputs (artifacts, screenshots, analytics) go to a judge
Slide 123: If you can do it
Slide 124: If you can do it, an agent can
Slide 125: Writing a React hero component in a code editor
Slide 126: A Cursor agent cleaning up React effects
Slide 127: SpaceX logo animation