A pipeline captures the Cursor CLI's text output format and keeps it as the record of what the agent did. Which content actually appears in that output?

Easycursorcursor-clioutput-formatautomation

Last reviewed 21 Aug 2026

The whole terminal transcript appears with the colour codes removed, so every file read and write is recorded.
Every assistant message appears in order, though the arguments passed to each tool are trimmed from the record.
The final message appears together with a one-line summary of each tool call the agent made along the way.
Only the agent's final message appears; intermediate text and tool call summaries are left out entirely.Correct answer

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D. Only the agent's final message appears; intermediate text and tool call summaries are left out entirely.

Explanation

The principle — The text output format is a summary of the answer, rather than a record of the run.

Why the key is correct — Only the final assistant message, after the last tool call, is output, with no tool call summaries and no intermediate text. A pipeline that keeps that output as its audit trail has kept the conclusion and thrown away every step that produced it.

Why the others are wrong — It is not the terminal transcript with the colours removed, and that assumption is what makes it look like an audit trail. No per-tool summary line accompanies the final message either, and earlier assistant messages are dropped rather than trimmed of their tool arguments.

Remember this — For a record of what the agent did, choose a streaming structured format instead of text.

Sources — Cursor's CLI Output format documentation.

Sources

Primary sourceOutput format — Cursor · accessed 19 Aug 2026
“Only the final assistant message (after the last tool call) is output, with no tool call summaries or intermediate text.”

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A pipeline captures the Cursor CLI's text output format and keeps it as the record of what the agent did. Which content actually appears in that output?

Easycursorcursor-clioutput-formatautomation

Last reviewed 21 Aug 2026

The whole terminal transcript appears with the colour codes removed, so every file read and write is recorded.
Every assistant message appears in order, though the arguments passed to each tool are trimmed from the record.
The final message appears together with a one-line summary of each tool call the agent made along the way.
Only the agent's final message appears; intermediate text and tool call summaries are left out entirely.Correct answer

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D. Only the agent's final message appears; intermediate text and tool call summaries are left out entirely.

Explanation

The principle — The text output format is a summary of the answer, rather than a record of the run.

Remember this — For a record of what the agent did, choose a streaming structured format instead of text.

Sources — Cursor's CLI Output format documentation.

Sources

Primary sourceOutput format — Cursor · accessed 19 Aug 2026
“Only the final assistant message (after the last tool call) is output, with no tool call summaries or intermediate text.”

Practise 10 questions on this topic

Take Cursor Basics — Timed Test 1 (10 questions) — scored instantly, explanation for every question, no login.

Start the test

A pipeline captures the Cursor CLI's text output format and keeps it as the record of what the agent did. Which content actually appears in that output?

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A pipeline captures the Cursor CLI's text output format and keeps it as the record of what the agent did. Which content actually appears in that output?

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