Cursor CLI vs Mirror CLI

Cursor CLI

Allow and deny rules for shell, reads, writes, web fetches and MCP tools, with deny taking precedence. No CLI changelog, and versions are dates.

Mirror CLI

Mirror CLI is Apache-2.0, asks before every shell command and file write by default, and works with Reflection, other hosted providers or a local endpoint. It is a one-day-old 0.1.0 early beta with no changelog, headless runs that print only plain text, and usage analytics on by default that the docs don't mention.

Cursor CLI

1. Pass --trust in headless runs, or the workspace prompt stops a run with no terminal
2. Write deny rules in .cursor/cli.json before using --force. It runs any command they don't match
3. Don't use --approve-mcps in repositories you didn't write. Two 2025 CLI advisories came through MCP
4. Set CURSOR_API_KEY in CI. agent login opens a browser
5. Record agent --version with each run. Versions are dates and there's no CLI changelog to compare against

Mirror CLI

1. Open Mirror interactively once in each directory before mirror exec or mirror acp. Both refuse to run until the usage and folder notices are accepted
2. Pass --approval-mode auto to mirror exec only inside a container or VM. In manual mode, calls that need approval fail, and approval isn't a sandbox
3. Set --max-iterations on unattended runs. Turns are unlimited by default
4. Check the result with your own tests. exec returns 0 whenever it prints an answer
5. Never share logs recorded with --log-level debug. The docs say they contain request headers with the API key