> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://www.isaacbowen.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://www.isaacbowen.com/2025/06/08/cursor.md). # cursor I live like I assume I'm going to lose my memory at any moment. this means that I leave workspaces primed for the next move, so that whoever arrives and regardless of what memory-set they happen to bring they have what they need to hit the ground running. this also means that *most* of my time feels like a pinball machine on a particularly lucky shot: * 1\. I navigate space * 2\. as I navigate, I encounter something that is primed for its own next step * 2a. if I was already working on something, *I physicalize the state of the step I was just taking, so that when I return, I will require zero memory retrieval in order to continue* * 3\. I step in, embody the thing and its context * 3a. I take the next step * 3b. if the next step completes the thing, then I withdraw from that context. * 3b1. upon emerging: if the context I emerge into is primed for a next step, goto 3a * 3b2. otherwise, I rest. :) the function returns here. * 3c. otherwise, if the next step requires *navigation*, then I navigate space, goto #1 key: I don't pick up stuff that doesn't have a natural next step. ever. (nuance: sometimes "natural next step" is an emergent property between a specific visiting cursor and the apparent context) the ongoing practice of this results in a kind of emergent development of space. not a *claiming* of space, but a kind of... stable relationship with a space, maybe, and the perimeter does gradually expand. I'm 15 years in on doing this on purpose, and me-doing-this-on-purpose now supports 12 full-time humans (and other dependencies downstream) who are doing this with me. we're a whole company, by all appearances, with 15k users and everything. our workspace is broad, and regular but not homogeneous. it *breathes*, I think I can say. stigmergy-as-business. my experience of living is pretty much just an alternating sequence of flow and rest, at this point I am a nonviolent resolver, I think p.s. please note: 2a sets the scene for someone else running the same heuristic to happen by and then just handle the thing. feels like half the time (I don't measure this, but I feel lucky) I end up discovering that my next step is to just return to rest, at 3b2. let me be clear: this is recursion *but with a chance of not having to climb all the way back \[ up / down / out ] afterwards* - and those odds get better as more agents join the party. it's a resolving process, but it's also .. I guess it's developmental for what I experience as my own story. my context is ever-new, in a way that just feels like fresh air and good circulation. I really like it here. :) p.p.s. this documentation, btw, is a physicalization of my state. perhaps the next step is yours? this heuristic is *very* portable, and possibly (in a strict sense, not a colloquial sense) viral. p.p.p.s. * 2a1. every so often, if the physicalized state-form is something I can carry while keeping my hands fully free, and if that kind of thing *feels* good to both of me and to what I imagine of that-which-has-been-physicalized (I'm a rational animist) and to the context that created it with me, I take the physicalized form with me. almost like a companion. sometimes absolutely a companion. this kind of thing often leads to surprising possibilities later, as the physicalized moves with me from one context to the next. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.isaacbowen.com/2025/06/08/cursor.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.