Why doesn't the agent put the key into Cursor?

Cursor stores the key in its own settings, which other programs can't write safely. A person pastes it once; the CLI never shows the key to the agent.

Every guide

Guide · Cursor

Use ScaledThought with Cursor

Based on what npx -y scaledthought@0.3 connect cursor prints, you point Cursor's OpenAI settings at ScaledThought like this: in Cursor Settings → Models, turn on the OpenAI base URL override and enter https://api.us.scaledthought.com/v1, paste a ScaledThought key as the OpenAI API key and add the model id.

Open this prompt inClaude Code Claude Desktop Codex

Deep links into apps you have installed. Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic; Codex is a trademark of OpenAI. ScaledThought is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.

Or run it yourself:

Before you start

These steps are based on what npx -y scaledthought@0.3 connect cursor prints, with a daily budget added to the key. Cursor's settings labels may differ by release: Cursor's own help page (below) describes adding an OpenAI API key under Cursor Settings → Models but doesn't show the base URL override, and we haven't run this setup end to end.

Cursor keeps its OpenAI key in its own settings store, which other programs can't write safely, so a person sets it once.

Create the account

Paste the prompt above into your coding agent, or run the command yourself in your project's directory. It creates the account, writes ST_API_KEY and ST_BASE_URL to ./.env (mode 0600) and adds .env to .gitignore. Only the US region is open; Canada is coming soon.

shell

npx -y scaledthought@0.3 init --region us --source org-cursor-guide

Buy credits

Usage is prepaid, so a new account answers 402 insufficient_credits until its first top-up. This prints a payment link and opens it in your browser; nothing is charged until you pay on it. How prepaid credits work

shell

npx -y scaledthought@0.3 billing topup --amount-usd 20
npx -y scaledthought@0.3 billing wait

Point Cursor at the API

Cursor Settings → Models: turn on the OpenAI base URL override ("Override OpenAI Base URL" when connect cursor was written) and enter https://api.us.scaledthought.com/v1.

Make a key for Cursor

In your own terminal (not through the agent), in the folder where init wrote ./.env, create a sub-agent key for Cursor. It is printed once: paste it into the OpenAI API key field and save.

shell

npx -y scaledthought@0.3 keys create --child --name "cursor: my-laptop" --budget-usd 5

Add the model

Under Models, add deepseek-v4-1-flash (or another id from npx -y scaledthought@0.3 models --live) and pick it in chat.

Notes

Cursor's help page says keys you add are sent to Cursor's backend with every request, because requests go through Cursor's servers, and that your own keys work only for chat models (Tab keeps Cursor's models).
A sub-agent key stays within its parent's scopes, budget and expiry, and --budget-usd caps what Cursor can spend per day. Revoke it with keys revoke <id> when you stop using it.

Sources

Cursor help: Bring your own API key, read 2026-10-12.
ScaledThought CLI reference (connect cursor), read 2026-10-12.
ScaledThought: /llms.txt (the setup protocol) and the docs.

Questions

Why doesn't the agent put the key into Cursor?: Cursor stores the key in its own settings, which other programs can't write safely. A person pastes it once; the CLI never shows the key to the agent.