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Set Up potato-skill in Cursor

Add potato-skill to a Cursor project with one npx command, start the skill from Agent chat with /potato-skill, and approve the commands the skill runs.

Cursor loads skills from .agents/skills/ in your project, and npx skills add davidjurgens/potato-skill --agent cursor copies potato-skill there. Typing /potato-skill in Agent chat attaches the skill to a message. Quick Start with a Coding Agent covers what the skill does with a study, and Install potato-skill in Your Coding Agent covers the other agents.

Before you install

Potato goes in the Python environment that Cursor's terminal uses. The skill's helper scripts import Potato's registries and call the potato command, and the skill's first step checks that Potato imports. The browser extra and Chromium let potato preview --screenshot and the skill's walk-through script open the task in a headless browser:

bash
pip install 'potato-annotation[preview]'
playwright install chromium

The skills CLI runs through npx and needs Node.js 22.20 or later.

Installing the skill

Run the install in your project folder:

bash
npx skills add davidjurgens/potato-skill --agent cursor

The command copies SKILL.md, the 30 reference files, and the nine helper scripts into .agents/skills/potato-skill/, and records the source in skills-lock.json at the project root. Cursor loads skills from .agents/skills/ and .cursor/skills/ automatically. Committing .agents/skills/ gives collaborators who open the repository in Cursor the same skill.

Add -g to install the skill for every project on the machine instead:

bash
npx skills add davidjurgens/potato-skill --agent cursor -g

A global install goes to ~/.agents/skills/potato-skill/, a user-level folder Cursor also reads. Cursor reads .claude/skills/ as well. A project with potato-skill in .claude/skills/ needs no second copy for Cursor.

Checking the install

Open Customize in Cursor's sidebar and go to Skills, where potato-skill appears in the list. potato-skill has no connection to the poteto-mode skill in Lauren Tan's pstack plugin for Cursor.

Starting a study

Typing /potato-skill in Agent chat attaches the skill to one message:

text
/potato-skill I want 200 tweets labeled for sentiment on a 5-point scale by three annotators each, with a consent page and two attention checks. Build it and start it.

Cursor also loads the skill without the command when a request matches the skill's description, such as a request to build an annotation task, edit a Potato config.yaml, or check on a running study.

Run modes and approvals

Cursor runs the agent's terminal commands under the run mode set in Settings > Agents > Approvals & Execution. The default mode, Auto-review, runs commands in a sandbox that blocks network access by default, and Cursor asks for approval when a command has to run outside the sandbox. The skill's checks start a Potato server on your machine and open the task in a headless browser. Read each command Cursor shows you before approving the command. Cursor's run modes page documents the allowlist and the sandbox settings.

Updating and removing the skill

The skills CLI updates and removes the skill by name. Add -g to either command for a global install:

bash
npx skills update potato-skill
npx skills remove potato-skill

update checks the installed copy against the GitHub repository and replaces the copy when the repository has changed. remove deletes .agents/skills/potato-skill/ and the skill's entry in skills-lock.json.

Further reading