Learn Cycle, Firefox and Gulp

Cascading Style Sheets bring order and beauty to our applications.

CSS Media queries are heavily used across web pages for different reasons, such as make your web pages responsive, but what if we can use them to improve web accessibility as well?

In this video, I’m sharing How to use CSS Media Queries for web accessibility in your web app, combining the user preferences choice with `prefers-color-scheme` media query and enabling dark mode in your web app.

Create a Dark Mode Theme in Your Web App Using CSS Media Query

Firefox DevTools has an awesome feature that helps you determine Inactive CSS, to know why it's inactive, it gives you hints on how to fix it, and even links to documentation for additional help.

Understand why CSS has no effect with the Inactive CSS rules indicator in Firefox DevTools

The Chrome Developer Tools (DevTools for short), are a set of web authoring and debugging tools built into Google Chrome.

chrome-devtools

The axe browser extension (for Chrome and Firefox) is an immensely helpful tool for auditing web pages for accessibility defects.  This extension is powered by the same rules engine developed by Deque Labs in their axe-core open source library which also powers the react-axe development tool.  Each reported defect offers a ton of information about the defect, why it's a problem, severity level, groups impacted and ways to fix the defect.  This can be a great resource for learning more about how to write accessible code.

## Resources
* [Chrome browser extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/axe-web-accessibility-tes/lhdoppojpmngadmnindnejefpokejbdd)
* [Firefox browser extension](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/axe-devtools/)

Use the axe Browser Extension to Audit a Web Page for Accessibility Issues

WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite, defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies. 

aria

tota11y is a great tool to add to your accessibility auditing toolkit.  tota11y is a browser extension available for Chrome and Firefox that helps visualize accessibility violations (and successes), while educating on best practices.  It can make for a really helpful supplement to other accessibility auditing tools.

## Resources
* [About tota11y](https://khan.github.io/tota11y/)
* [Chrome browser extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tota11y-plugin-from-khan/oedofneiplgibimfkccchnimiadcmhpe?hl=en)
* [Firefox browser extension](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tota11y-accessibility-toolkit/)

Use tota11y to Visualize Accessibility Issues

Using our accessibility auditing toolkit we can find issues concerning landmark regions in our web application.  The react-axe library will report findings in the JavaScript console of the browser.  We could also run the axe browser extension to see the same results.  The tota11y browser extension will annotate any landmark regions on the page and therefore if none are annotated it may indicate that they aren't any (_NOTE: tota11y will only annotate landmark regions using aria roles and not those using HTML5 elements_).  Finally using the VoiceOver Rotor in Safari will show us whatever landmark regions have been defined in the Landmarks menu. 

Test for Landmark Region Accessibility Issues in React

Animations can make people sick, or worse! By adding animation toggles and listening in to the user's system preference for reducing motion on OSX and iOS, we can give them more control over our interfaces. Animation can be a safety issue; let's do something about it!

Warning: there is a flashing animation in the video.

In this lesson:
- [prefers-reduced-motion](https://webkit.org/blog/7551/responsive-design-for-motion/)

WCAG 2.1, Guideline 2.3: Seizure risks
- https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/?versions=2.0#qr-seizure-does-not-violate

Your Interactive Makes Me Sick
- https://source.opennews.org/articles/motion-sick/

Accessible animations with reduced motion

Cycle.js is a framework where your app is described as a simple function taking an event stream as input and outputting an event stream.

cycle

This lesson shows what can be learned next as a continuation of this course, and gives a recap on the core concepts: main for pure logic, drivers for side effects, run() to connect main and drivers, sources for read effects, sinks for write effects, and nesting Cycle.js apps to work as components.

Overview of Cycle.js

Cycle.js is a framework where your app is described as a simple function taking an event stream as input and outputting an event stream. 

Cycle.js builds on functional and reactive streams and is a JavaScript framework. What does that mean? In the course, André Staltz, the creator of Cycle.js, will explain it to us.

We'll start this course with an empty project and build out our own toy version of Cycle.js to understand exactly what's going on under the hood. When we have a solid base of how Cycle.js works we will move on to use the Cycle.js API and build an app using the Model-View-Intent pattern.

Cycle.js Fundamentals

Our app is not yet a BMI calculator, because it only has two sliders, but doesn't show the calculated BMI number. In this lesson we will learn how to export any stream from a child component and use it in the parent component, in order to display the BMI calculation on the DOM.

Export Values from Components through Sinks in Cycle.js

We added classNames to pre-processing and post-processing steps when calling the LabeledSlider, in order to instances independent of each other. It would be better if we could hide these steps away. This lesson introduces the isolate() helper function to achieve that.

Isolate Component Instances in Cycle.js

Once we have a labeled slider component inside the main function, we should be able to create another labeled slider. This lesson teaches how to accomplish that, and make sure those two instances work independently of each other.

Use Multiple Independent Instances of a Cycle.js Component

We have made a Cycle.js app for generic labeled slider which can be configured through props, but how can we reuse it in other Cycle.js apps? This lesson shows how we can embed any Cycle program inside a larger Cycle program in a very simple manner.

Use a Cycle.js Component in the main() Function

We are starting to get a better architecture for these UI apps. But we still have a problem of repeating code for the sliders, since they share so much in common in looks and functionality. This lessons shows how we can create a generic labeled slider as a main() function receiving properties as sources.

Create a Generic Cycle.js Component

We built the BMI calculator all inside one function: main(). As apps scale, we don't want main() to grow. We need an organized pattern where each function focuses on doing one thing. This lesson shows how we can easily refactor the main() function into three parts: Intent, Model, and View.

Organize your Cycle.js Application into the Model-View-Intent Pattern

So far we have been writing very small apps in Cycle.js. Let's start growing the size of the apps we build. This time, we will see how to build a simple Body-Mass Index Calculator. We'll see how as our application grows there are three distinct sections: handling read effects, handling write effects, and handling internal state.



Manage Multiple Observable Streams in Cycle.js

Let's see next how to use the HTTP driver to generate requests and capture responses. We will build a small app to fetch a single piece of data from a REST server and display that on the DOM.

Fetch Data using the Cycle.js HTTP Driver

This lesson shows how we can create a more interactive app: a counter display with buttons to increment and decrement it. We'll see how we can use the *xstream* `fold()` operator to remember previous values and combine them to create the next values. This is actually how you keep state in *Cycle.js*. 


Modify and Track State in Cycle.js

Now you should have a good idea what Cycle.run does, and what the DOM Driver is. In this lesson, we will not build a toy version of Cycle.js anymore. Instead, we will learn how to use Cycle.js to solve problems. We will start by making a simple Hello world application.

Read Text Input in a Cycle.js Hello World Application

This lessons shows how we are able to easily swap our toy DOM Driver with the actual Cycle.js DOM Driver, a more solid, more flexible, more efficient implementation.

Convert our Toy DOM Driver to the Cycle.js DOM Driver

Usually we use template languages like Handlebars, JSX, and Jade to create. One simple way we can create our own template language is to write a function that returns these objects for us. This lessons shows how we can use these functions as a DSL to create our DOM description objects.

Use Hyperscript in Cycle.js as an Alternative to Template Languages

What if we wanted to change the behavior of our app reset the timer every time the mouse *hovers* over it? Currently we only support clicks, and they are hard coded in the DOM Driver. This lesson will introduce DOMSource.selectEvents(), a way of making the DOM Source rich and allowing the main() function to determine which read effects it needs.

Fine-grained Control over the DOM Source in Cycle.js

Hey Everyone 👋,

John Lindquist here with the second issue of AI Dev Essentials! It's been another busy week in the AI tooling world. The biggest splash was probably GPT-4.1 hitting the streets, but there's plenty more action around MCP, Vercel's v0, Google's developer tools, and interesting community discussions. I've spent some time with GPT-4.1 already (specifically in Cursor), and while it shows promise, it didn't quite convince me to switch from Gemini 2.5 Pro yet. It stumbled on a few basic requests where Gemini usually shines on the first attempt.

---

### New egghead.io Lesson This Week:

* **[Create a Custom MCP that Calls Cursor Tools](https://egghead.io/create-a-custom-mcp-that-calls-cursor-tools~r77sw):** Learn how to build custom MCP server tools that allow Cursor's AI Agent to access your local project context. This lesson shows how to use Zod schemas and the crucial `.describe()` method to explicitly request information (like Git status or version) from the Cursor environment *before* your tool runs, enabling powerful, context-aware automation.

---

Here are the highlights that caught my eye this past week.

## Model Mania: GPT-4.1 Arrives, Plus Grok & Llama Updates

* **GPT-4.1 Lands:** OpenAI announced GPT-4.1, and it quickly became available via the [API](https://openai.com/live/) and showed up in [Cursor](https://x.com/cursor_ai/status/1911835651810738406). Cursor is offering it free for now to let users get a feel for it, though they don't recommend it as a default just yet. Curious to hear initial impressions from folks testing it out for coding tasks.

* **Grok 3 in Cursor:** Following other model additions, [Cursor also enabled Grok 3 models](https://x.com/amanrsanger/status/1910434915419906141), with the mini version available for free users. Aman Sanger noted it seems to "think upfront more than other models."

* **Community Hack: Llama 4.0 via Groq in Cursor:** Levi Dan shared a [detailed (and slightly hacky) guide](https://x.com/lxvi_brg/status/1908865544721154455) on how to wire up Groq's fast Llama 4.0 API into Cursor by using the OpenAI API key slot and intercepting requests. A clever workaround for the adventurous!

## Tooling & Platform Pulse

Lots of movement across different platforms and tools this week:

* **Vercel Ecosystem:**

  * Guillermo Rauch teased [v0 coming to VS Code](https://x.com/rauchg/status/1911524154458984515), hinting at tighter integration for the UI generation tool.

  * v0 also [added AI integrations](https://x.com/v0/status/1911912183149256943) with models from xai (Grok), FAL, Groq, and DeepInfra, including automatic API key setup and pay-as-you-go billing via Vercel Marketplace. They're offering a $10 credit for the Grok free tier.

  * Vercel shared insights on the [grep.app migration from CRA to Next.js](http://grep.app/), showcasing performance improvements. ([Source](https://x.com/rauchg/status/1911920410020757881)) I'm personally excited about this one – I rely heavily on examples when working with AI, and for me, a good example is often worth ten prompts. Tools like `grep.app` that make code discovery easier are invaluable.

* **Google's Growing Stack:**

  * Project IDX has officially become [Firebase Studio](https://x.com/_davideast/status/1909990728593453455), positioning itself as a cloud-based, agentic dev environment for full-stack AI apps, deeply integrated with Firebase. I've tried spinning up a few sites with it, and the speed is impressive. However, for more complex tasks like designing from images or intricate interactions, I still find myself leaning towards v0 for now.

  * Google quietly released the [Agent Development Kit (ADK)](https://x.com/omarsar0/status/1910004370864742757), a Python library (`pip install google-adk`) for building multi-agent systems with features like state management, tool usage, and orchestration. I haven't had a chance to dive into this yet, but it's right at the top of my list. Building robust agent systems is a huge area of interest, so this is probably the announcement I'm most excited about exploring this week.

  * Ramón Medrano Llamas shared his experience [moving back to VS Code from Cursor](https://x.com/rmedranollamas/status/1909516749612999149), highlighting the effectiveness of GitHub Copilot combined with the Gemini Code Assist extension (using Gemini 2.5 Pro in Agent Mode). I gave the Gemini Code Assist extension a try myself, but as someone deeply embedded in the Cursor workflow with established keyboard shortcuts and patterns, I struggled to find a flow I liked and didn't stick with it for long. It's interesting to see different perspectives, though!

  * AI features are rolling out more broadly in [Chrome](https://x.com/iam_chonchol/status/1909942954686636224), including text grabbing from YouTube videos and Google Lens integration.

* **Cloudflare Corner:**

  * Big news for edge compute: [Cloudflare Containers are coming to Open Beta in June](https://x.com/CherryJimbo/status/1910682562499850405), enabling running containerized apps (Next.js, Go, PHP confirmed) directly on the edge. This is huge news, in my opinion. Think about all the WordPress sites and other applications that rely on containerization. Opening this up on the edge unlocks incredible possibilities, including for AI applications. I'm super hyped to see what people build with this come June.

  * A new tool, [MCPify.ai](http://mcpify.ai/), launched for building MCP servers conversationally, built entirely on Cloudflare Workers and Durable Objects. ([Source](https://x.com/pbteja1998/status/1911723180445610149))

  * Securing MCP servers is getting easier, with examples shared using [WorkOS AuthKit](https://x.com/WorkOS/status/1910722639036874943) and [Auth0](https://x.com/dschenkelman/status/1910693265566728319).

* **IDE Updates:**

  * JetBrains shared the public [WebStorm roadmap for March-April](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/WEB-72310). ([Source](https://x.com/WebStormIDE/status/1909291367504748937))

> **✨ Workshop Spotlight: Conquer the Complexity of Cursor (Europe Friendly Time!) ✨**
>
> Missed the last workshop or found the timing tricky? This one's for you! Master practical AI development workflows in Cursor in a session scheduled for **12:00 PM UTC** to better accommodate European attendees.
>
> This hands-on workshop covers Agents, Ask, Custom Modes, multi-file analysis, effective prompting, Cursor rules, and strategies for handling AI failures. Unlock Cursor's potential and streamline your development process.
>
> * **When:** \[Check website for upcoming dates - This session is Europe-friendly at 12:00 PM UTC\]
>
> * **Where:** Zoom (Live Q&A included)
>
> * **Investment:** $149
>
> ➡️ [**Read More about the Workshop**](https://egghead.io/workshop/cursor)
> ➡️ [**Register Now ($149)**](https://buy.stripe.com/7sI7tT81dfpC06s28c)
>
> *(Team training also available)*

## Community Buzz & Resources

* **MCP Explained:** Kent C. Dodds wrote a piece explaining [why he's excited about Model Context Protocol (MCP)](https://www.epicai.pro/the-game-changing-potential-of-model-context-protocol) and its potential. ([Source](https://x.com/kentcdodds/status/1911840456432034112))

* **Prompting Guide:** Ian Nuttall surfaced [v7 of Google's Prompt Engineering Guide](https://x.com/iannuttall/status/1911086164196606314), a deep dive into techniques and best practices. Definitely worth a look.

* **Discussion Starter:** Eric Zakariasson asked the community about their [favorite CLIs and MCP servers to use with the Cursor agent](https://x.com/ericzakariasson/status/1910808935961088346). What are you all using?

* **Gemini 2.5 Pro Praise:** The positive buzz around Gemini 2.5 Pro continues to grow in the community. It's getting rave reviews and even achieving 'S-tier' status on social platforms like Reddit for its coding capabilities. ([Source](https://x.com/suchenzang/status/1911251230317490416))

That’s a wrap for this week! There's always so much happening, it's hard to keep up, but hopefully, this helps surface some of the more interesting bits for developers working with AI.

If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to respond to this email. Always happy to talk shop about the latest AI tools.

John Lindquist

[egghead.io](https://egghead.io)

John Lindquist

AI Dev Essentials #2: GPT-4.1 Arrives, MCP Deep Dive & Google's Agent Dev Kit

AI Dev Essentials #2: GPT-4.1 & Gemini updates, MCP tools, Vercel v0, Google ADK, Cloudflare Containers news. Latest AI dev tooling highlights.

In this quick walkthrough, you’ll learn how to drop Nx into an existing npm or pnpm workspace and immediately benefit from project graph visualization, caching, and smart task orchestration, all without rewriting your setup.

You’ll start with a standard React monorepo containing a Vite app, a UI package, and utility functions. Then, using a single command (`nx init`), you’ll initialize Nx and see how it auto-detects your existing scripts, builds a dependency graph, and enables advanced features like affected commands and local caching.

We're also going to explore optional enhancements using Nx plugins for Vite and React. You’ll see how they help Nx infer tasks directly from your Vite config files, improve DX with the Nx Console VS Code extension, and leverage Nx plugin generators to scaffold code with a consistent structure.

What you’ll learn
- How to initialize Nx in an existing npm or pnpm monorepo
- How Nx understands your workspace structure and scripts
- How local caching and affected builds speed up development
- How optional Nx plugins improve DX without adding bloat
- How to scaffold new packages

Juri Strumpflohner

Using Nx on an existing React and NPM workspace based monorepo

Applying Nx to an existing React monorepo to enable caching, task orchestration, and project graph analysis without changing your current setup.

Typing repetitive or complex instructions for Cursor's AI agent can slow down your workflow. This lesson teaches you how to create custom slash commands (e.g., `/s term`, `/l`, `/c`) using Cursor's "Rules" feature. Learn how to map these simple shortcuts to specific AI actions, instructing the agent to use precise tools like `codebase_search`, `edit_file`, or `run_terminal_cmd` based on your command and the current conversation context.

**Workflow demonstrated in this lesson:**

*   List available AI tools (built-in and MCP) to get their exact names.
*   Navigate to Cursor Settings -> Rules.
*   Define custom rules under a heading (e.g., `## Slash Commands`).
*   Create rules mapping a slash command pattern (like `/s <term>`) to a detailed instruction specifying which tool to use and how (e.g., "Use the codebase_search tool to search for <term/>").
*   Define rules that leverage conversation context (e.g., for summarizing notes or creating commit messages).
*   Save the rules (potentially in `.cursor/rules/project.mdc` for team sharing).
*   Invoke the custom slash commands (e.g., `/s handle`, `/l`, `/c`) in the chat/agent window.
*   Observe the AI understanding the shortcut and executing the intended tool call.

**Key benefits:**

*   Creates efficient, reusable shortcuts for common AI interactions.
*   Reduces the need for typing lengthy, detailed prompts repeatedly.
*   Allows mapping simple commands to specific Cursor tool invocations.
*   Enables commands that leverage the ongoing conversation context.
*   Improves workflow speed and consistency when working with the AI agent.

Speed Up Your Agents with Cursor Slash Commands

Hey Everyone 👋,

John Lindquist here. Since I've been diving deep into AI tooling and workflows over the past year, I'm starting this weekly newsletter to share updates on what interests me and could be helpful to the community. The goal is to help everyone stay up-to-date with the latest in essentials tools for AI devs.

I'll focus on relevant community news, model evaluations for coding, notable tools like Cursor and Windsurf, and practical workflows (including tools I build myself 😇). This week kicks off Cloudflare Developer Week with major announcements around agent/MCP services that many of us will likely use soon (I'll dig in and share my thoughts next issue). There are also lots of hints about new coding models possibly coming to Cursor (though my preference remains Gemini 2.5). Personally, I'm hoping for a Gemini Flash 2.5 variant. So let's hop into the latest! For my detailed, up-to-date workflows, check out the workshop info below.

Recent egghead.io lessons about AI tooling:

* **[Swarm Intelligence: Massively Parallelize Your AI Agents in Cursor](https://egghead.io/swarm-intelligence-massively-parallelize-your-ai-agents-in-cursor~g7u2g):** A workflow using `file-forge`, AI scripting, and a custom `git worktree` tool (`wt`) to launch parallel Cursor agents on different branches.
* **[Build a Better Edit Tool in Cursor with Custom Agent Modes](https://egghead.io/build-a-better-edit-tool-in-cursor-with-custom-agent-modes~21rr0):** Create a focused 'edit mode' in Cursor for precise AI refactors without conversational overhead, overcoming Command-K limitations.
* **[Visually Clone Websites with Gemini 2.5 Canvas for Cursor](https://egghead.io/visually-clone-websites-with-gemini-2-5-canvas-for-cursor~s5ugk):** Use Gemini 2.5 Pro's Canvas feature within Cursor to analyze and replicate website structures.

---

## Cloudflare Developer Week: Agent & Platform Updates

Cloudflare announced several updates relevant to AI application development:

* **Durable Objects Free Tier:** Lowers the barrier for experimenting with stateful serverless and the Agents SDK. ([Rita Kozlov](https://x.com/ritakozlov_/status/1909231625855983939))
* **MCP Enhancements:** BYO Auth (incl. [Auth0](https://x.com/auth0/status/1909307220816228354)) and Hibernation for MCP servers aim to improve agent security and efficiency. Exercise caution with MCP, but these are steps toward production viability.
* **Workflows GA & autoRAG:** Orchestration tool is now GA; a new autoRAG product indicates more integrated AI solutions.
* **Outerbase Acquisition:** Expect Durable Objects usability improvements following this acquisition. ([Rita Kozlov](https://x.com/ritakozlov_/status/1909232149246492887))
* **OpenNext Adapter Beta:** v1.0-beta for deploying Next.js apps on Cloudflare Pages adds caching, PPR, middleware support. ([CloudflareDev](https://x.com/CloudflareDev/status/1909598450871652398))

**Summary:** Cloudflare is actively enhancing its platform for AI/agent development, particularly reducing friction with Durable Objects and MCP.

## Llama 4 & Nemotron-Ultra Released

Meta's Llama 4 models began rolling out, with initial reports of variable quality across implementations. Meta attributes this to implementation stabilization, denying training on test sets ([Ahmad Al-Dahle](https://x.com/Ahmad_Al_Dahle/status/1909302532306092107)). Nvidia subsequently released **Llama-Nemotron-Ultra** (253B parameters), derived from Llama-405B via pruning and reasoning-focused post-training. Open weights and data are available ([Oleksii Kuchaiev](https://x.com/kuchaev/status/1909444566379573646)).

**Summary:** More powerful open models are available. Llama 4's initial rollout highlights the importance of stable implementations. Nemotron-Ultra adds a high-end specialized option.

---

## Quasar Alpha: Stealth Model on OpenRouter

OpenRouter provides early access to "Quasar Alpha," a model with limited public details but notable claims: 1M token context, benchmarks reportedly surpassing Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and >4x faster speeds. Reports suggest strong coding performance comparable to O3 Mini/DeepSeek R1 but significantly faster ([Matthew Berman's Thread](https://x.com/TheMattBerman/status/1908286423976886371)). The originating lab remains anonymous; speculation includes GPT-5, Claude 4, or Gemini 3.

**Summary:** The combination of large context, speed, and reported coding strength warrants attention for agentic workflows and large codebase analysis, despite benchmark caveats. Worth testing via OpenRouter if accessible.

---

**✨ Workshop Spotlight: Conquer the Complexity of Cursor ✨**

Master practical AI development workflows in Cursor. This hands-on workshop covers Agents, Ask, Custom Modes, multi-file analysis, effective prompting, Cursor rules, and strategies for handling AI failures.

* **When:** **This Thursday!** April 10, 2025, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM (PDT)
* **Where:** Zoom (Live Q&A included)
* **Investment:** $149

Unlock Cursor's potential and streamline your development process.

➡️ [**Read More about the Workshop**](https://egghead.io/workshop/cursor)
➡️ [**Register Now ($149)**](https://buy.stripe.com/dR67tT4P17Xa8CYfZ1)

*(Team training also available)*

---

## Quick Links

* **Nightwhisper Buzz:** Highly-rated coding model "Nightwhisper" (rumored Gemini 2.5 variant?) left LMSys Arena; release may be imminent. ([ʟᴇɢɪᴛ Tweet](https://x.com/legit_api/status/1908264443827351913), [AiBattle Tweet](https://x.com/AiBattle_/status/1907519430961025476))
* **AI SDK Speech-to-Text:** Vercel AI SDK added a `transcribe` function. ([AI SDK Tweet](https://x.com/aisdk/status/1909603418639155460))
* **Gemini 2.5 Pro Updates:** Supports YouTube URLs as input in AI Studio (transcribe, summarize, analyze); reported improvements reducing stop issues/displaying thinking tokens. ([Jean Gatt Tweet](https://x.com/jean__gatt/status/1909256747518226829), [Eric Zakariasson Tweet](https://x.com/ericzakariasson/status/1908619515023548880))
* **Baby Cursor Project:** Cursor's Ryo Lu is building a rapid prototyping environment for IDE ideas. ([Ryo Lu Tweet](https://x.com/ryolu_/status/1908328050154233863))
* **(Rumor) Qwen3 Soon?:** Hints suggest Alibaba's Qwen3 model release is near. ([Elaina Tweet](https://x.com/Elaina43114880/status/1909572798944841859))

---

If you have any feedback or any questions, feel free to respond to this email. Always happy to talk shop about the latest AI tools.

John Lindquist

[egghead.io](https://egghead.io)

AI Dev Essentials #1: Cloudflare agent updates, Llama 4/Nemotron/Quasar models, Cursor workshop

Cursor's AI Agent has the abilitly to invoke MCP tools, but they lack direct access to your project. This lesson shows how to build custom MCP (Model Context Protocol) server tools that bridge this gap. Learn to define tool parameters using Zod schemas and the crucial `.describe()` method to explicitly request necessary context from the Cursor environment *before* your tool runs. See how the AI gathers this information (like Git status or version via terminal commands, or web search results) and passes it to your tool, enabling powerful, context-aware automation.

**Workflow demonstrated in this lesson:**

*   Scaffold a basic MCP server using a Cloudflare template (`pnpm create cloudflare`).
*   Run the MCP server locally and configure it in Cursor settings.
*   Define MCP tools (e.g., `status`) within the server code (`index.ts`).
*   Specify required context for tools using Zod schema parameters and `.describe()` (e.g., requesting "The status of the git repository").
*   Interact with the Cursor Agent using natural language (e.g., "Please check the status").
*   Observe the Agent's thought process: identifying the need for specific context based on the `.describe()` text.
*   See the Agent automatically using its *own* tools (like `run_terminal_cmd` or `web_search`) to gather the requested context *before* calling your MCP tool.
*   Watch the Agent call your MCP tool, passing the gathered local context (Git status, version, etc.) as arguments.
*   Receive the final response from the Agent, incorporating the information provided by your local MCP tool.

**Key benefits:**

*   Allows Cursor's AI to access and reason about information from your local machine (Git status, versions, file contents, etc.).
*   Enables the creation of AI tools that directly interact with or report on your local development environment.
*   Demonstrates the power of using `.describe()` in Zod schemas to guide the AI in gathering necessary context automatically.
*   Unlocks advanced automation possibilities by combining AI reasoning with local machine access.

Create a Custom MCP that Calls Cursor Tools

Vimium's Vomnibar is a "command palette"-like search tool for your open tabs, browser history, and bookmarks. We can search through and jump to any tab open across browser windows. We can also do a generalized search with results that also include browser history and bookmarks which can either be opened in the current tab or a new tab. If you're anything like me, you open tons of tabs and visit hundreds of webpages over the course of a week. The vomnibar puts all of that at your fingertips.

Josh Branchaud

Open Tabs, Browser History, and Bookmarks with the Vomnibar

Vimium's Vomnibar is a "command palette"-like search tool for your open tabs, browser history, and bookmarks.

Another aspect of Vimium's configurability is customizable key mappings. We can add new mappings and override existing ones. If there is a certain Vimium feature you want to make easier to trigger, adjust the key mapping to suit your needs.

Configure Custom Vimium Key Mappings

Another aspect of Vimium's configurability is customizable key mappings. We can add new mappings and override existing ones.

Many aspects of Vimium can be configured in order to bend the tool to your specific needs and use cases. We look at how to configure what sites turn off Vimium, the default search engine, link hint characters, and other basic settings. We also see how both insert mode and searching a visual selection work. Custom keymappings and custom search engines are covered in subsequent lessons.

Configure Basic Aspects of Vimium

Many aspects of Vimium can be configured in order to bend the tool to your specific needs and use cases.

Vimium's "marks" feature lets you mark positions in the current tab and across tabs. These are positional markers that you can jump back to. For instance, as you browse a huge page of documentation or a massive forum discussion, you can leave a series of "dog ears" to sections or conversations that you'll later want to revisit. Each tab supports its own set of lower-case letter marks. Upper-case letter marks are shared across tabs allowing you to seamlessly move between a specific set of tabs regardless of how they are arranged.

Set Marks on a Vimium Webpage You Want to Jump Back To

Vimium's "marks" feature lets you mark positions in the current tab and across tabs. These are positional markers that you can jump back to.

Vimium's `yy` shortcut makes quick work of grabbing the URL for the current page. I find this useful for linking to an article in my notes or sharing a web page with my team in Slack/Discord. We'll get a glimpse at a couple other features like `gi` (for "go to input") and `o` to open the URL on the clipboard.

Grab and Open URLs with Vimium

Vimium's `yy` shortcut makes quick work of grabbing the URL for the current page.

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