Cursor is adding app-building and deployment features that take AI-generated applications from development to a live, shareable URL. The new capability works through cloud agents, which also handle infrastructure tasks such as hosting, databases, authentication, and security checks before an app goes live.
Built on cloud agents
Cursor introduced cloud agents last year so developers could run multiple AI coding agents remotely without keeping their laptops on. At that time, the company said the agents could fix bugs, handle smaller coding tasks, and implement some complex features.
The latest update extends those same agents through deployment. The feature is available only through cloud agents, so it does not work with agents running locally. Users begin by describing the app they want in natural language, and Cursor manages the code generation and development process. The agent then creates the application and sets up the underlying project with the components needed to run it.
When the app is ready, users can preview it before publishing. Publishing makes it available through a live URL, which users can share with colleagues or other users without setting up hosting themselves. Cursor says there are two ways to start: building from scratch creates a new repository on Cursor Origin, its Git-based code-hosting platform launched in August as an agent-centric alternative to GitHub. Users can also deploy from an existing GitHub repository, which lets them prepare and publish an app without moving code to Origin or configuring deployment infrastructure manually.
The company’s examples suggest the feature is aimed at internal business apps, including sales dashboards, onboarding programs, customer presentations, and developer portals. It also says individual subscribers can publish apps publicly, so someone could create a neighbourhood football league tracker or interactive family holiday planner and share it with anyone who has the link.
Hosting, databases and access controls
Cursor began closing this gap in August, when it added previewing and live URL publishing for cloud-agent projects, but users still had to connect their own Vercel accounts. The latest release removes that requirement and adds managed infrastructure. Cursor now handles hosting, databases, and authentication behind the scenes.
For hosting, Cursor automatically creates a dedicated account for each team or individual subscriber, isolated from other customers. Cursor’s announcement does not identify the underlying hosting provider, but Vercel said in a separate X post that the feature is built on its Vercel for Platforms infrastructure. That setup lets users deploy apps without creating their own Vercel accounts or configuring hosting themselves.
If an app needs a database, Cursor provisions one using PostgreSQL. Private and team applications are protected by Cursor’s existing sign-in system, while individual subscribers can make their apps publicly accessible. Apps can also connect to external services, including company databases and data warehouses, if users provide the required credentials. Cursor says those secrets are managed separately, so the AI agent never sees their actual values.
Security checks and earlier warnings
Before an app goes live, Cursor says it runs “a series of deterministic and agentic security checks.” Those checks include mandatory scans for exposed credentials, secrets, and sensitive files, along with an AI-powered review meant to find more serious vulnerabilities.
Cursor also says it is unclear how reliably those automated checks can spot more complex problems such as misconfigured database permissions or application-level access controls. It says that is an important consideration for organizations connecting AI-generated applications to sensitive internal systems, where extra security scrutiny would still be advisable. In May last year, Semafor reported that two Replit employees reviewed 1,645 Lovable-built applications and found that 170 exposed sensitive information. The problems involved incorrectly configured database permissions, and Lovable later introduced additional security checks before applications are published.
Cursor in a crowded app-building market
Cursor is moving into a space already occupied by Lovable and Replit, both of which let users create and publish applications through natural-language prompts. Cursor’s announcement puts more weight on internal business tools, while Lovable and Replit have usually appealed to a broader group of aspiring app creators.
The overlap has already drawn attention from developers. One software engineer on X wrote, “cursor just came for the localhost graveyard.” Cursor’s move also overlaps with Grok Build, especially because SpaceX acquired Cursor in August. SpaceXAI introduced Grok’s Build Mode in July and expanded it to all Grok plans the following month. The feature lets users create apps, games, and websites inside a Grok conversation and publish them to shareable grok.me links.
Cursor says its new functionality is available on all paid Cursor plans with cloud agents enabled. As deployment becomes part of the AI coding workflow, the company’s move may add pressure to dedicated app-building platforms as the line between tools for professional developers and tools for aspiring vibe coders keeps narrowing.
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