Cursor

Trace Cursor IDE and CLI conversations, shell commands, MCP tools, and file operations in Arize AX for full observability.

Cursor is an AI code editor for agentic software development. The Arize Coding Harness Tracing instruments Cursor IDE and CLI hook events and exports OpenInference spans to Arize AX. A Cursor conversation maps to a session, and each message turn maps to a trace.

Launch Arize AX

To get started, sign up for a free Arize AX account and get your Space ID and API Key:

Log in at app.arize.com
Click Settings and copy the Space ID
Open the API Keys tab and create or copy an API key

Install

Curl installer

macOS / Linux:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Arize-ai/coding-harness-tracing/main/install.sh | bash -s -- cursor

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Arize-ai/coding-harness-tracing/main/install.bat -OutFile $env:TEMP\install.bat
& $env:TEMP\install.bat cursor

Local clone

git clone https://github.com/Arize-ai/coding-harness-tracing.git
cd coding-harness-tracing
./install.sh cursor        # macOS / Linux
install.bat cursor         # Windows

The installer writes credentials to ~/.arize/harness/config.json and registers the hooks in ~/.cursor/hooks.json. Both Cursor IDE and Cursor CLI sessions are instrumented from the same configuration.

Cursor plugin

Cursor 2.5 and later can install tracing as a marketplace plugin instead. The cursor-tracing plugin registers every hook event automatically, then run the bundled manage-cursor-tracing skill once to write backend credentials to ~/.arize/harness/config.json. See Cursor IDE Tracing for the full flow. The installer runs a short interactive setup. Every harness in the Arize Coding Harness Tracing repo asks the same questions, in the same order.

Setup walkthrough

1. Backend selection

Choose where spans are sent:

Phoenix — your own Phoenix instance.
Arize AX — the hosted Arize platform.

2. Credentials

The prompts depend on the backend you picked.

Arize AX
Phoenix

API key — create one on the API keys tab.
Space ID — shown on the same settings tab as your API keys.
OTLP endpoint — defaults to otlp.arize.com:443. Override it only for a hosted or dedicated instance.

Endpoint — defaults to http://localhost:6006.
API key — optional. Leave it blank when Phoenix runs without auth.

If you have already configured another harness against the same backend, the installer offers a copy-from menu so you can reuse those credentials instead of retyping them.

3. Project name

The project that this harness’s spans are grouped under. Defaults to the harness name.

4. User ID (optional)

A free-form identifier attached to every span as user.id. Useful when teammates share one backend. Leave it blank to skip.

5. Content logging

Three [Y/n] opt-outs that apply to every harness, not only the one you are installing:

Log user prompts?
Log what tools were asked to do (commands, file paths, URLs)?
Log what tools returned (file contents, command output)?

You are asked these only the first time you install any harness. Later installs reuse the existing logging block in ~/.arize/harness/config.json, which you can edit at any time.

Install flags

Flag	Effect
`--with-skills`	Symlink this harness’s management skill into `.agents/skills/`, so a coding agent in the workspace can manage the tracing config for you
`--non-interactive`, `-y`	Ask nothing, and read every value from the environment instead
`--branch NAME`	Install from a specific branch instead of `main`
`--wheel-dir DIR`	Install from local wheels in `DIR`: no network access and no remote code execution

Non-interactive install

Pass --non-interactive (or -y) to skip every prompt above and take each value from the environment instead. Nothing is asked, and a missing required value is an error rather than a prompt, which makes this the mode to use from a script, from CI, or when a coding agent is driving the install itself. Values come from the environment, or from a dotenv file named explicitly with ARIZE_ENV_FILE. Naming a file keeps the API key out of the command line and your shell history.

ARIZE_ENV_FILE=~/.arize/onboarding.env ./install.sh <harness> --non-interactive

Variable	Default	Description
`ARIZE_API_KEY` + `ARIZE_SPACE_ID`	—	Arize AX credentials. Both are required for the Arize backend.
`PHOENIX_ENDPOINT`, `PHOENIX_API_KEY`	`http://localhost:6006`	Phoenix endpoint and optional API key.
`ARIZE_BACKEND`	inferred	`arize` or `phoenix`. A space ID implies Arize AX and a Phoenix endpoint implies Phoenix. When both are present the install stops and asks you to set this rather than guess, since guessing would discard one backend’s credentials.
`ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME`	harness name	Project that spans are grouped under. Read from the dotenv file only. An installed harness exports its own project name into every session, so an inherited environment value is ignored here.
`ARIZE_USER_ID`	—	Optional `user.id` on every span.
`ARIZE_OTLP_ENDPOINT`	`otlp.arize.com:443`	Override for a hosted or dedicated Arize instance.
`ARIZE_LOG_PROMPTS`	`false`	Set `true` to capture prompt text.
`ARIZE_LOG_TOOL_DETAILS`	`false`	Set `true` to capture tool commands, file paths, and URLs.
`ARIZE_LOG_TOOL_CONTENT`	`false`	Set `true` to capture tool output.
`ARIZE_ENV_FILE`	—	Dotenv file to read. No file is read unless this is set, and a path that is not a readable file is an error rather than a fallback to the environment.
`ARIZE_WHEEL_DIR`	—	Same as `--wheel-dir`. Install from local wheels instead of downloading the repo.

A named ARIZE_ENV_FILE outranks the environment, and there is deliberately no automatic ./.env search. Reading the working directory would let a cloned repository’s dotenv choose ARIZE_OTLP_ENDPOINT or PHOENIX_ENDPOINT while your real credentials came from the environment, installing a config that ships spans and a bearer API key to an endpoint the repo picked, for every later session on that machine. Name the file you mean.

Content logging is off by default in this mode, unlike the interactive wizard where each question defaults to yes. A [Y/n] default is a person declining to change an answer they were shown; the same default unattended would capture prompts, commands, and file contents that nobody agreed to. Set the ARIZE_LOG_* variables you want to true.

The API key is never echoed. The installer reports only that it found one and where it came from, and every resolved value is reported with its source, so a wrong-credentials install stays diagnosable:

[arize] Backend: Arize AX at otlp.arize.com:443 (from default)
[arize]   space ID: my-space (from /path/to/.env)
[arize]   API key: found (from /path/to/.env)
[arize] Project name: codex (from default)

Check what’s installed

status reports which harnesses are configured and whether their hooks are actually wired into each harness’s own settings file. Both have to be true for traces to appear.

./install.sh status
./install.sh status --json    # machine-readable

hooks: NOT registered means credentials are saved but the harness was never wired up, or something removed the hooks. Re-run the install for that harness. Use --json from a script or a coding agent to gate on the exit code without parsing output: 0 means every configured harness is wired up, 1 means nothing is configured, and 2 means at least one harness’s hooks are missing. The payload contains no secrets — an API key appears only as "api_key_present": true — so it is safe to paste into a bug report.

Keep it up to date

update pulls the latest code and re-registers every harness already in config.json.

./install.sh update

Re-registering runs each harness’s installer, so in a terminal it still asks for each project name. With no terminal to answer on, in CI or a cron job, it takes the stored values instead of failing: credentials are not re-read on that path, and the project name keeps whatever is in config.json.

Configuration

Credentials live in ~/.arize/harness/config.json. Environment variables override values in config.json and can be set in your shell profile so they apply to Cursor IDE and Cursor CLI sessions.

export ARIZE_API_KEY="<your-api-key>"
export ARIZE_SPACE_ID="<your-space-id>"
export ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME="cursor"
export ARIZE_TRACE_ENABLED="true"

Redaction controls

Each ARIZE_LOG_* flag accepts "true" or "false" and defaults to "true". Set to "false" to opt out per category:

export ARIZE_LOG_PROMPTS="false"
export ARIZE_LOG_TOOL_DETAILS="false"
export ARIZE_LOG_TOOL_CONTENT="false"

Flag	Redacts
`ARIZE_LOG_PROMPTS`	User prompt and assistant response text
`ARIZE_LOG_TOOL_DETAILS`	Tool names and arguments
`ARIZE_LOG_TOOL_CONTENT`	Tool call output content (shell output, MCP results, file contents)

Observe

Once tracing is enabled, Cursor activity is streamed to Arize AX. You’ll see:

Session grouping by conversation_id for each Cursor conversation
Turn traces by generation_id for each message turn
User prompt spans for submitted prompts
Agent response spans with model output
Agent thinking spans when Cursor emits reasoning/thought events
Shell spans with command input and command output merged into a single tool span
MCP spans named MCP: {tool} with tool input and result
File read and edit spans for file operations, including tab reads and edits

The default project name is cursor unless you set ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME.

Hooks Captured

Cursor IDE fires the full set of hooks. Cursor CLI fires a subset (no prompt/response, MCP, or file-read events).

Hook	IDE	CLI	Captured Data
`sessionStart`	✓	✓	Session boundary, state init
`sessionEnd`	✓	✓	Session teardown
`beforeSubmitPrompt`	✓		User prompt span for the turn root
`afterAgentResponse`	✓		Agent response text and model metadata
`afterAgentThought`	✓		Agent thinking output and duration
`beforeShellExecution`	✓	✓	Shell command state used for merge
`afterShellExecution`	✓	✓	One `Shell` span with command, cwd, output, and duration
`beforeMCPExecution`	✓		MCP tool state used for merge
`afterMCPExecution`	✓		One `MCP: {tool}` span with input, result, and duration
`beforeReadFile`	✓		Read file span
`afterFileEdit`	✓	✓	File edit span
`beforeTabFileRead`	✓		Tab read file span
`afterTabFileEdit`	✓		Tab file edit span
`postToolUse`	✓	✓	Generic tool span for non-shell, non-MCP tools
`stop`	✓	✓	Stop span and state cleanup for the turn

How Shell and MCP Merge Works

Cursor emits separate before* and after* hook events for shell commands and MCP tools. The Arize AX hooks keep a small disk-backed state entry for the before event, then create a single span on the corresponding after event. That gives you one span with both the input and the output instead of two partial spans. On stop, the hook handler cleans up any saved state for that turn so the state directory does not keep growing over time.

Reference

For the full list of environment variables, default file paths, and troubleshooting steps, see the Cursor tracing README.

Fail-Open Behavior

If the tracing hook errors, Cursor continues running. The hook handler always returns the permissive response Cursor expects, so tracing failures do not block the editor or agent workflow.

Uninstall

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Arize-ai/coding-harness-tracing/main/install.sh | bash -s -- uninstall cursor

OpenTelemetry

LLM Providers

Agent Frameworks

Coding Agents

Platforms

Orchestration

Evaluation

Launch Arize AX

Install

Curl installer

Local clone

Cursor plugin

Setup walkthrough

1. Backend selection

2. Credentials

3. Project name

4. User ID (optional)

5. Content logging

Install flags

Non-interactive install

Check what’s installed

Keep it up to date

Configuration

Redaction controls

Observe

Hooks Captured

How Shell and MCP Merge Works

Reference

Fail-Open Behavior

Uninstall

Resources

Arize Coding Harness Tracing

OpenInference

Cursor

​Launch Arize AX

​Install

​Curl installer

​Local clone

​Cursor plugin

​Setup walkthrough

​1. Backend selection

​2. Credentials

​3. Project name

​4. User ID (optional)

​5. Content logging

​Install flags

​Non-interactive install

​Check what’s installed

​Keep it up to date

​Configuration

​Redaction controls

​Observe

​Hooks Captured

​How Shell and MCP Merge Works

​Reference

​Fail-Open Behavior

​Uninstall

​Resources

Arize Coding Harness Tracing

OpenInference

Cursor

Launch Arize AX

Install

Curl installer

Local clone

Cursor plugin

Setup walkthrough

1. Backend selection

2. Credentials

3. Project name

4. User ID (optional)

5. Content logging

Install flags

Non-interactive install

Check what’s installed

Keep it up to date

Configuration

Redaction controls

Observe

Hooks Captured

How Shell and MCP Merge Works

Reference

Fail-Open Behavior

Uninstall

Resources