lens for cursor

Cortex Lens is a paid commercial product. This extension is the client component and requires an active Cortex Lens tenant to operate. See LICENSE for terms.

vs-code-style extension for cursor that ships token, cost, and tool-call telemetry into the multi-tenant cortex-lens dashboard. it lives next to connectors/claude-code-hook and connectors/lens-cli and uses the same env contract so a workspace can adopt all three with one token.

status: 0.1.0, scaffold only. the mcp transport binding and full editor-activity capture land in pc-1b.

what it looks like

once activated, the extension surfaces a status bar widget at the bottom-right of the cursor window showing live session savings (lens: $0.00 saved). click the widget to open the configured dashboard at <lens.baseUrl> in the browser, where the SavingsCounter, Brain Advisor whisper card, and Improvements drill-down chart aggregate every tool call captured by this extension and its sibling connectors.

screenshots: three banner-style placeholder mockups live in images/: status-bar.png (1200x300, the bottom-of-IDE widget), dashboard-preview.png (1200x600, the Lens dashboard top nav with the savings counter), and command-palette.png (1200x400, the three lens: commands the extension registers). these are composed placeholders, not real captures from a running install; they ship with the Marketplace listing and are replaced with real screenshots once the first design-partner is on the dashboard.

install

pnpm --filter @cortex/lens-cursor-extension build
pnpm --filter @cortex/lens-cursor-extension package
cursor --install-extension questo.lens-cursor-extension-0.1.0.vsix

configuration

set both values in Cursor > Settings > Extensions > Lens for Cursor or in your workspace .vscode/settings.json:

what it captures

• mcp tool calls forwarded from cursor's internal mcp layer (pre and post phases). args are redacted client-side via lib/redact for obvious credentials; the receiver applies the full removal catalog server-side.
• status bar widget bottom-right showing current session savings. click opens the configured dashboard.
• claude-code-in-terminal detector: polls integrated terminals every 30 seconds. when claude code is running in the same workspace, the de-dup adapter in packages/adapters uses this signal to drop duplicate events.

commands

privacy

• the tenant token never lands in logs, stdout, stderr, or the post body. only the authorization header carries it.
• arg values matching common credential patterns are replaced with [redacted] before they leave the workstation. server-side, the removal catalog applies again over the message text and tool args.
• the extension only reads files cursor already has open or terminals already running. it does not read arbitrary disk.

carry-forwards (pc-1b future scope)

the following are documented as out of scope for this scaffold and land in the pc-1b follow-on:

1. editor activity capture: cursor moves, file opens, selection changes. requires vscode.workspace.onDidOpenTextDocument + vscode.window.onDidChangeTextEditorSelection wiring with a sampling cap.
2. completion telemetry: cursor tab token usage. requires hooking cursor's internal completion api (still in flux as of 2026-05).
3. inline chat capture: cursor's inline chat panel events. depends on cursor exposing a public event api.
4. real mcp transport binding: this scaffold uses a no-op mcp source. pc-1b wires the actual cursor mcp event stream into MCPProxy.

layout

connectors/cursor-extension/
  package.json
  tsconfig.json
  vitest.config.ts
  README.md
  src/
    extension.ts          activate/deactivate, status bar wire, command registration
    index.ts              public re-exports for tests
    status-bar.ts         LensStatusBar widget
    mcp-proxy.ts          MCPProxy + MCPEventSource interface
    claude-code-detector.ts  ClaudeCodeDetector poll
    lib/
      redact.ts           client-side credential redactor stub
      ingest-client.ts    batched HTTP transport
  tests/
    vscode-mock.ts        vscode runtime mock for vitest
    extension.test.ts     4 cases
    mcp-proxy.test.ts     3 cases
    claude-code-detector.test.ts  4 cases
    status-bar.test.ts    2 cases
    ingest-client.test.ts 4 cases

related

• connectors/claude-code-hook ships hook events for claude code itself (python).
• connectors/lens-cli wraps coding-agent cli invocations from the outside (node).
• packages/adapters/src/claude-code-to-agent-trace.ts is the receiver-side adapter for the hook source. the cursor adapter lands in pc-2.
• apps/enterprise/app/api/ingest/ide/route.ts is the receiver this extension posts to (the ide path).

verifying that lens is actually loaded inside cursor

cursor 3.5.x sometimes hides side-loaded vsix entries from the search filter inside the extensions panel even when the extension is fully activated and running. the activation log is the source of truth, not the panel search box. follow this procedure to verify in under one minute.

1. confirm activation in the log

open the most recent log session under %APPDATA%/Cursor/logs/<TIMESTAMP>/window1/exthost/exthost.log and search for questo.lens-cursor-extension. you should see two lines per cursor restart:

ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension questo.lens-cursor-extension, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
Extension activated success: questo.lens-cursor-extension - 10ms (code loading: 8ms, activate call: 2ms, activate resolved: 0ms)

if those two lines are present, the extension is loaded and running. visibility in the extensions panel is a separate ui concern and does not gate functionality.

2. confirm the status bar widget

after activation, the extension calls vscode.window.createStatusBarItem(...).show(). look at the bottom-right of the cursor status bar. you will see one of two texts:

• lens: $0.00 saved when capture is enabled
• lens: paused when capture is paused

if the widget is visible, lens is alive end-to-end. clicking the widget runs lens.openDashboard.

3. confirm command registration

open the command palette with ctrl+shift+p and type lens:. three commands should appear:

• Lens: open dashboard
• Lens: toggle capture
• Lens: view recent session savings

if the palette finds them, the extension is registered correctly. command palette lookup is independent of the extensions panel filter and is the second most reliable signal after the activation log.

4. if the widget and palette both show but the panel does not

this is the known cursor 3.5.x ui state: side-loaded vsix entries can disappear from the installed-tab search filter when cursor's publisher registry sync fails. functionality is unaffected. options:

• ignore it: the extension is running. the panel entry is only needed to uninstall via the gui.
• restart cursor with --reload-extensions: forces cursor to rebuild the panel state from ~/.cursor/extensions/extensions.json.
• uninstall via cli if needed: cursor --uninstall-extension questo.lens-cursor-extension. the entry comes back on the next reinstall in some cases.

5. if the activation log does not show the two lines

then the extension truly failed to load. likely causes and fixes, in order of probability:

6. quick repackage and reinstall procedure

if you need to rebuild and reinstall from source after editing the manifest:

cd C:/Intel/questo/projects/cortex-lens/connectors/cursor-extension
pnpm --filter @cortex/lens-cursor-extension build
pnpm --filter @cortex/lens-cursor-extension package
cursor --install-extension lens-cursor-extension-0.1.0.vsix

then fully quit cursor (taskkill any leftover Cursor.exe) and reopen. re-verify steps 1 through 3 above.