8. Cursor Agent from OpenClaw on the Edgible site¶

Same page, same URL, this time built by a coding agent.

8.0 Why¶

Chapter 4 showed that an agent on your box can change what the internet sees. What it produced was one model’s HTML in a single pass: no layout, no reusable updater, nothing you would show a customer. This chapter closes that gap.

Do not point OpenClaw’s chat model at Cursor, and do not paste a Cursor key into the model config. Cursor is not a chat model. It is a coding harness you hire for one job over ACP, with its own session, working directory and permission mode, while Gemini keeps talking to you. Running it as a separate job also keeps the blast radius small: one directory, one narrow allowlist, and approve-all only for the length of the job.

The target is the same public hostname you have used since chapter 1. No new app, no new auth mode, no new port. The only variable is who wrote the file. This chapter wipes Gemini’s page on purpose, so look at that page first.

Where you run this: the Cursor CLI, acpx and the cron installer on the Ubuntu guest (agent login needs the guest desktop browser); the spawn and steer in Control UI; the before-and-after refresh on a phone on cellular.

8.1 The job¶

4. OpenClaw changes the public Edgible site proved OpenClaw can change a public URL. That HTML was a single pass. Here you put the starting Hello World page back, hire Cursor over ACP to build On this day (layout, CSS, updater, state, cron installer), and hard-refresh the same hostname. Gemini (or whatever you set in 9) stays the OpenClaw chat model. You do not paste a Cursor key into openclaw models set. approve-all plus this spawn writes the public site.

Skip without a Cursor subscription. Finish chapter 4 first, because this chapter wipes Gemini’s page on purpose.

Done when

agent status on the VM shows a logged-in Cursor account.
/acp doctor in Control UI is healthy.
Phone on cellular, hard-refresh hello-world: designed On this day page with “Who they were”, “Why they still matter”, and “A quirky detail”; footer shows the next rotation in Europe/London time; still a person born on this date; still no personal data.
~/hello-world contains updater + state, and Cursor documented (or installed) on-this-day-rotate as an OpenClaw command cron. The chapter 4 Gemini HTML job is disabled or gone.
A second run (next hour or Run now) shows a different person, not a repeat.
permissionMode is approve-reads again (or you accept the wider ACP blast radius and said so).
openclaw-ui protection is still org. Port 18789 is still not forwarded.

Need first: 4. OpenClaw changes the public Edgible site, 3. OpenClaw Control UI through Edgible (openclaw-ui org), nginx bind-mount from 1.9. Control UI cannot bind, so spawn then steer. WhatsApp (7) can --bind here.

Not this chapter: Cursor.app on the Mac; making Cursor the default chat model; another ACP spawn for the hourly tick (python3 cron after install).

8.2 How the job runs¶

The job runs on the Gateway host (this Ubuntu VM). One-off ACP jobs on ~/hello-world write on the host, not through docker exec. The hourly tick after install is python3 via OpenClaw command cron, not another ACP spawn.

ACP (Agent Client Protocol) is a small language two programs speak over stdin/stdout: start a session, send a prompt, stream tool calls, finish. OpenClaw is the client. Cursor CLI (agent acp) is the server.

acpx is OpenClaw’s plugin that owns that client. Until it is installed, enabled, and the Gateway restarted, /acp doctor reports ACP_BACKEND_MISSING. On 2026.7 the runtime is embedded in the plugin.

The commands below are this chapter's working vocabulary. The concepts behind them are in the glossary.

Word	What it is here
Harness	Cursor CLI running as that ACP server.
Session	One hired job. Key looks like `agent:cursor:acp:<uuid>`.
`/acp doctor`	Is acpx loaded and can it start `agent acp`?
`/acp spawn`	Start a session and point it at a directory (`--cwd`). On Control UI this does not send the coding task.
`/acp steer`	Send the actual prompt to that session key.
`/acp close`	End that Cursor job from OpenClaw’s side (stop the harness process, drop the session key). Does not close the Control UI, uninstall acpx, or log out `agent`.
Bind	Pin this chat so follow-ups go to Cursor. Control UI is webchat and cannot bind, so this step uses `/acp spawn` then `/acp steer` with a uuid. WhatsApp can `/acp spawn cursor --bind here --cwd …`; after that you type a normal message, no steer. Telegram is 6. Telegram pocket client for OpenClaw (Bot API, not ACP bind).
Oneshot	Do the task and finish.
`approve-all`	Headless writes. Applies to all ACP jobs on this Gateway until `approve-reads`.

Once, in order: reset and inspect Hello World → CLI + acpx → doctor → spawn → steer the full product (site + rotation tools) → run Cursor’s installer → /acp close → tighten permissions.

8.3 Clean slate (Hello World, no rotation cron)¶

The comparison only works if you can see the starting page. Restore 1.9’s HTML, delete extra files from chapter 4, remove Gemini rotation jobs. nginx stays up; you are not recreating the Edgible app.

On the VM:

openclaw cron list

Remove (or disable) every job that rewrites hello-world / On this day. In Control UI → Automations you can delete them too. Then:

cd "$HOME/hello-world"
# keep .git if you want history; drop the Gemini/Cursor leftovers
find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 ! -name '.git' ! -name 'index.html' -exec rm -rf {} +
cat > index.html << 'EOF'
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>Hello World</title></head>
<body>
  <h1>Hello World</h1>
  <p>Served from your Ubuntu VM through Edgible.</p>
</body>
</html>
EOF
ls -la
curl -sS http://127.0.0.1:8081/

ls should be index.html (and maybe .git). curl should be Hello World, not a biography. On the phone (cellular), hard-refresh https://hello-world.YOUR-ORG.edgible.com. Same starting page as 1.9. That is the before state.

8.4 Cursor CLI on the VM¶

On the VM (guest terminal, same user as the Gateway):

curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
agent --version

You want a version string. The binary is agent. Some docs say cursor-agent; if which cursor-agent is empty, that is fine.

Sign in with the VM desktop browser (same Cursor account as the Mac is fine):

agent login
agent status

You want a logged-in account, not a prompt to log in. systemd will not see a GUI keychain the way macOS does; Ubuntu file auth from agent login as this user is enough.

Do not publish Cursor through Edgible. Do not put a Cursor API key in Hello World.

echo "$HOME/hello-world". That path is --cwd later. Do not spawn against ~/.openclaw.

8.5 Install the ACP runtime (acpx plugin)¶

ACP_BACKEND_MISSING / ACP runtime backend is not configured means the Gateway process has no acpx backend yet. /acp doctor in chat cannot fix that. Install on the VM, restart, then run doctor again. Do not /acp spawn until doctor is healthy.

On this OpenClaw (2026.7.x) the doctor’s own next step is the bare plugin id. On the VM:

openclaw plugins install acpx
openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.enabled true
openclaw config set acp.enabled true
openclaw config set acp.backend acpx
openclaw gateway restart
openclaw plugins list

You want acpx enabled and loaded, not only installed. If install acpx fails or list stays empty:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/acpx
openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.enabled true
openclaw gateway restart
openclaw plugins list

Still missing: openclaw plugins install clawhub:@openclaw/acpx, then restart and list again.

If openclaw config get plugins.allow prints a JSON list, acpx has to be in it. plugins install usually appends it; if not, add acpx to that list (keep the other ids) and restart.

/acp install in Control UI prints the same enable steps. acpx --help is a 2026.7 hint for a standalone CLI. Newer acpx is embedded in the plugin. If acpx --help is “command not found” but plugins list shows loaded, ignore the binary and continue. Do not npm i -g acpx unless doctor still says backend missing after a loaded plugin + restart.

Then the Cursor harness + a narrow allowlist:

openclaw config set acp.defaultAgent cursor
openclaw config set acp.allowedAgents '["cursor"]' --strict-json
openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.probeAgent cursor

The Gateway daemon often does not have ~/.local/bin on PATH. Point ACP at the real binary (your $HOME):

openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.agents.cursor.command "$HOME/.local/bin/agent"
openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.agents.cursor.args '["acp"]' --strict-json

If which cursor-agent printed a path instead, use that path and args ["acp"].

Headless ACP cannot click “allow write.” For this demo only:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.permissionMode approve-all
openclaw gateway restart

approve-all is for ACP sessions on this Gateway, not only hello-world. Put org back on openclaw-ui if you flipped it. After 8.7, set permissionMode back to approve-reads.

Open a new Control UI chat (an old tab can still think ACP is missing). Then /acp doctor.

8.6 Doctor, then spawn from the phone¶

On the VM, Gateway running. In Control UI chat (local dashboard or phone on cellular, same as chapter 3):

/acp doctor

Healthy looks like: configuredBackend: acpx, registeredBackend: acpx, runtimeDoctor: ok (embedded ACP runtime ready), agent=cursor, command=/home/YOURUSER/.local/bin/agent acp, healthy: yes. Doctor’s cwd is often ~/.openclaw/workspace. That is the probe, not the site. Spawn still needs --cwd from 8.3.

ACP_BACKEND_MISSING is the failure. Zero sessions / zero turns is normal before the first spawn.

Then spawn, unbound, because Control UI cannot --bind here. Use your path from 8.3:

/acp spawn cursor --mode oneshot --thread off --cwd /home/YOURUSER/hello-world --label hello-world

Success looks like: Spawned ACP session agent:cursor:acp:<uuid> (oneshot, backend acpx). Session is unbound… Ignore the hint to --bind here on webchat. Copy that full session key for steer. Do not type the next prompt as a normal chat line; this conversation is still Gemini, not Cursor.

/acp steer --session agent:cursor:acp:YOUR-UUID This folder is the original Hello World page (1.9). Build a phone-friendly On this day mini-site. One notable person born on this calendar date (Wikipedia births). Page structure, every time:
- Name, birth–death years, and a one-line label (what they are known as)
- Who they were
- Why they still matter
- A quirky detail
- Footer at the end: next rotation time in **Europe/London** (IANA zone — readers may substitute their own), human-readable (include the offset or BST/GMT). Compute from “hourly from this run,” e.g. this update + 1 hour, in that zone — not UTC and not the browser’s local zone.
Readable typography and a simple layout (CSS file is fine). Those three sections must be real headings, not a single blob. Public sources only. Nothing about me. Do not docker exec (nginx mount is read-only). Do not touch ~/.openclaw, Edgible config, or openclaw-ui.

--session hello-world only works if the label stuck; the uuid key always works. /acp sessions if you lost it. /acp status if it goes quiet. First Cursor run can be slow (login + model). Completions still announce back into this Control UI as a parent task.

Success looks like: ACP steer sent to… then a Cursor summary of HTML/CSS/state/script. That write-up is the harness, not Gemini describing a change it did not make.

Smoke test. Leave Control UI. On the phone (cellular), hard-refresh https://hello-world.YOUR-ORG.edgible.com. You want a designed page with “Who they were / Why they still matter / A quirky detail”, and a footer with the next rotation in Europe/London time. Not a single Gemini page, not “Hello World”, not “OpenClaw was here.”

cd ~/hello-world
git diff --stat
ls -la

You want CSS plus (after 8.6) an updater and a way to register hourly command cron. Rotation infrastructure is a second Cursor coding pass, not a timer that launches Cursor.

When you are done with the visual pass (or after 8.6):

/acp close

Natural language can work after doctor is green. Prefer /acp spawn + /acp steer for this first run.

8.7 Rotation infra (Cursor implements it)¶

Outcome: Cursor Agent adds the tools for hourly rotation in ~/hello-world: updater script, already-shown state, midnight rollover, and an installer (or a printed openclaw cron create …) that registers a command job. You run that installer once. After that, the hour belongs to OpenClaw’s scheduler executing Python.

Spawn like 8.5 (--cwd ~/hello-world). Steer:

/acp steer --session agent:cursor:acp:YOUR-UUID Keep the current visual design. Implement hourly rotation infrastructure in this folder:
1. A Python 3 updater that fetches Wikipedia births for today's month-day, picks one notable person not already shown today, rewrites index.html using the existing CSS and the same sections every time (name + dates, Who they were, Why they still matter, A quirky detail, footer with next rotation in Europe/London), updates a state file, and starts a new list after local midnight. Print the chosen name to stdout. Next rotation = this run + 1 hour, formatted in IANA Europe/London (not UTC).
2. A small install script (or README with the exact command) that registers an OpenClaw command cron: every 1h, python3 the updater, cwd this folder. Name the job on-this-day-rotate. Use --command (shell), not an OpenClaw chat prompt and not ACP/Cursor.
3. Tell me the exact commands to run once on the VM.
Do not docker exec. Do not edit ~/.openclaw by hand. Do not schedule Cursor or /acp spawn. Public sources only. Nothing about me.

/acp close when the summary lists files + the install command. On the VM, run what Cursor specified (example only; prefer their output):

ls -la ~/hello-world
cd ~/hello-world
python3 update.py

Hard-refresh the public URL: different name, same look. Then run their installer, or if they only printed cron:

openclaw cron list
openclaw cron create "every 1h" \
  --name "on-this-day-rotate" \
  --command "python3 update.py" \
  --command-cwd "$HOME/hello-world"

Run now in Automations. Disable the chapter 4 Gemini job that rewrites HTML in chat; it will overwrite this CSS.

8.8 Tighten permissions¶

openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.permissionMode approve-reads
openclaw gateway restart

Leave ACP installed if you will use it again; allowedAgents: ["cursor"] stays a narrow allowlist. Do not set gateway.auth to none. Do not spawn against ~/.openclaw.

Verify¶

agent status on the VM shows a logged-in Cursor account.
/acp doctor in Control UI is healthy.
Phone on cellular, hard-refresh hello-world: designed On this day page with “Who they were”, “Why they still matter”, and “A quirky detail”; footer shows the next rotation in Europe/London time; still a person born on this date; still no personal data.
~/hello-world contains updater + state, and Cursor documented (or installed) on-this-day-rotate as an OpenClaw command cron. The chapter 4 Gemini HTML job is disabled or gone.
A second run (next hour or Run now) shows a different person, not a repeat.
permissionMode is approve-reads again (or you accept the wider ACP blast radius and said so).
openclaw-ui protection is still org. Port 18789 is still not forwarded.

Next¶

That’s the series for the site A/B. Other chat models: 9. Models beyond free Gemini. Teardown: 10. Tear down OpenClaw. Index. WhatsApp as the bindable client is 7. WhatsApp linked device for OpenClaw. Telegram is 6. Telegram pocket client for OpenClaw. The edgible skill is 5. OpenClaw skill for the Edgible CLI.

Last updated 30 August 2026