1 min lesson
Know what a Build preserves
Separate reusable Build work from processes that must start on every agent run.
Step 1 of 2
A Build preserves prepared disk state. Each agent run must start its live services and app processes again.
A Cloud Agent Build prepares repositories, tools and dependencies before an agent starts. Cursor clones the environment's repositories, runs install to completion, saves disk state with the exact commit for each repository and activates a successful Build. Install must be complete and idempotent because it can run again over prepared disk state. Running processes, exported shell variables and in-memory caches do not survive the snapshot. Use start for Docker, databases, tunnels and other services. Use terminals for app processes in tmux sessions shared with the agent. Every run records the Build it started from. If a replacement Build fails, normal agents continue from the active successful Build while you inspect the failed events and logs or start a targeted agent from that failed state. Builds are included with Cloud AgentsAgents that run in a Cursor-managed virtual machine, check out the repo, do the work and open a pull request, then shut down, with no load on your laptop. Press Enter for the full definition..
- Entry point
- the environment's Builds tab, install command, start command, terminal commands, logs and recorded repository commit
- Source
- Cursor Cloud Agent BuildsPrepared Cloud Agent environments built in the background, with the last successful build kept active when a newer build fails. Press Enter for the full definition. and Cloud Environment Setup docs
Check environment resolution, install idempotency, startup commands, Build provenance and failed-Build recovery in Cursor's current docs.