Cursor is an AI-powered code editor from Anysphere, Inc., in San Francisco, built from Microsoft’s VS Code. SpaceX completed its purchase of Cursor on 14 August 2026.
It’s more powerful and less guarded than an all-in-one builder. Whoever built your app chose the hosting and the database themselves, so your system might be spread across a laptop, GitHub, Vercel or another host, and Supabase or another database, with a separate owner for each. We aren’t connected with Cursor, and everything below comes from public documentation and published reporting, as we read them on 6 November 2026.
Things are moving. Cursor now has its own code hosting, Origin, in early beta, and since 5 November 2026 it can set up hosting, a Postgres database and sign-in itself. So it’s also worth asking whether anything lives there.
What Cursor says about it
Cursor’s help centre has a very straightforward line:
Its terms say you’re responsible for evaluating, and bearing all risks of, what it suggests. If you let it run commands automatically, you’re assuming the risks of “system outages, software defects, data loss, and security vulnerabilities”. It offers scanning tools such as Bugbot and a Security Reviewer, but not on every plan. It also holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, by its own account, though those cover Cursor’s service and not what it helped someone to write.
Who holds the keys
Losing a Cursor login doesn’t lose your code. Losing the laptop, the GitHub account or the database account might. So work through each of them.
The builder’s laptop
Three things can exist only there: work that hasn’t been pushed to GitHub, secret keys in local files, and local settings. If that laptop is lost or goes when they go, those go too. An open GitHub page may look reassuring, but check the date of its last change.
GitHub
- A repository in a person’s account has one owner. GitHub says that owner has full control.
- GitHub recommends two owners for an organisation, because a project can become inaccessible if the only owner is unreachable.
- Lost two-factor can be final. GitHub says its support won’t restore access to accounts with two-factor on if you’ve lost your credentials and recovery methods.
- The person may keep access after a transfer. The original owner is added as a collaborator, so remove them if that’s not intended. Secrets also stay with the repository.
- We found no GitHub route for “the builder left and won’t answer”. Its policy covers a death. That’s the best reason to move the repository into a company organisation now.
Cursor itself
- The email can’t be changed. “Email addresses cannot be changed on existing accounts.” If it was set up on a personal address, the way out is a new account.
- If the admin has gone, Cursor’s entire answer is below. We found no documented process, or what proof it would want.
- A useful detail: Unpaid Admin seats have the same administrative powers and aren’t billable, so an owner who doesn’t code can hold control at no extra cost.
How to work out who owns what.
What has gone wrong publicly
Cursor is software that runs on a builder’s own computer with access to their files and keys, so problems there can reach your business. Three reports show the sort of thing to think about.
- A deleted database, April 2026. The Register reported PocketOS’s founder saying an AI agent running in Cursor deleted the production database and backups in one call to its hosting provider, taking nine seconds, using a token it found in an unrelated file. That token had been made for managing domains, but it was allowed to do anything. Who was to blame is disputed: the host’s chief executive called it a rogue customer AI with a fully permissioned token, and then patched the endpoint and restored the data. The lesson for owners is about over-powerful keys sitting in files.
- A tampered extension, October 2026. Cursor disclosed that a maliciously modified copy of a popular extension was available in its marketplace for about 11 hours on 29 October, attempting to install a backdoor. BleepingComputer reported up to 5,000 developers exposed. Ask your builder whether they were affected, as updating alone doesn’t clean it up.
- Opening a folder, 2025 onwards. Oasis Security showed that a malicious code repository could run code as soon as it was opened. Cursor’s documentation says Workspace Trust, the protection against this, is still disabled by default.
What you can check today
You may need the builder beside you for this. Menu names are from the documentation and can change.
Who owns the repository?
Look at the GitHub address: the name before the slash is the owner. A person’s username means one person owns it. Your own organisation is better.
Is the code really there, and recent?
Open it, and look at when it last changed. Does that match the app you’re using today?
Is there a second owner?
Your GitHub organisation, then People. If it’s a personal repository, name a successor under Settings, Account, Successor settings.
Who are the Cursor admins?
cursor.com/dashboard, Members. Is there more than one, and is one of them you?
Is the agent running unattended?
Settings, Agents, Approvals & Execution. “Run Everything” means that every action runs automatically.
Is Privacy Mode on?
Cursor Settings, General, Privacy Mode. The documentation isn’t consistent on the default, so look at the switch.
Where else is the app?
Ask who owns the hosting, the database and the domain, and write down each. Then check the Apps dashboard and cursor.com/codebase.
Are the keys only on one laptop?
Ask where each secret key is kept, and who else could get it if that laptop were gone. Secret keys explained
How we can help
A Cursor project needs someone to follow the trail across all of these accounts, and that’s the first part of our audit: every service, who owns it, and what’s exposed. Then you get a plain-English report and a plan to bring it all into the business’s name. See an example.
Questions
Is Cursor safe for building a business app?
It’s a capable tool, widely used by professional developers. The safety of your app depends on the choices made around it. Cursor’s own advice is not to ship software you don’t understand to production, so if nobody in your business understands yours, have it reviewed.
Do we own the code Cursor wrote?
Cursor’s terms assign its rights in suggestions to you. Whether your business or the person who used Cursor holds the rights is a separate question. Here’s the general position.
Sources
By Selwyn Doling, VibeTend. Last updated 6 November 2026.
