Cursor Pal

A small macOS menu bar pet that watches Cursor’s agent and tells you when it is working or finished.

The cat walks while the agent runs, rests when idle, and meows once (optionally with Mac speech) when a job completes.

What it does

• Menu bar cat — pixel oneko in the top bar
• Working — cat walks; optional walking sounds
• Idle — cat sits, may yawn or sleep quietly
• Ready — cat sits still; one meow when the agent finishes (and optional “Cursor is ready.” voice)
• Sleep — can keep the Mac awake while the agent is working
• Detection — reads Cursor’s log files first; uses Accessibility as a fallback

Requirements

• macOS 13 or later
• Cursor installed and running
• Accessibility permission for Cursor Pal (see below)

Install

From the project folder:

./scripts/install-app.sh

This builds the app and copies it to /Applications/Cursor Pal.app.

Or build only:

./scripts/package-app.sh
open "dist/Cursor Pal.app"

First launch

1. Open Cursor Pal from Applications (or open "/Applications/Cursor Pal.app").
2. When macOS asks, allow Accessibility for Cursor Pal:
   System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → Cursor Pal → On
3. The cat appears in the menu bar. Click it to open the menu.

If the menu says “Accessibility required”, use Open Accessibility Settings… in the menu and enable Cursor Pal.

Using the menu

Click the cat in the menu bar:

Item	What it does
Status	Current state: Idle, Working, Ready, or Needs approval
Speak when ready	Mac says “Cursor is ready.” when a job finishes
Keep Mac awake while working	Stops sleep while the agent is working
Mute / Unmute meow sounds	Cat OGG sounds on or off (speech is separate)
Test notification	Plays the ready meow and speech once
Quit	Exit Cursor Pal

Sounds

• Working — walking sounds only while the agent runs
• Idle — occasional sleep purr (no random chirps)
• Ready — one meow when a job actually finishes (not when you switch windows)

Speech and meow are independent: you can mute meows and still use Mac speech, or the other way around.

Troubleshooting

Check what the app sees:

"/Applications/Cursor Pal.app/Contents/MacOS/CursorSentinel" --snapshot

Full diagnostic (assets, logs, permissions):

"/Applications/Cursor Pal.app/Contents/MacOS/CursorSentinel" --diagnose

Rebuild and reinstall after code changes:

./scripts/install-app.sh

Then quit Cursor Pal from the menu and open it again.

Build from source (developers)

swift build -c release
./scripts/package-app.sh

Optional CLI to inspect Cursor’s Accessibility tree:

.build/release/cursor-a11y-explorer --watch --interval 0.5

Project layout

Sources/CursorSentinelApp/      Menu bar app (cat, menu, sounds)
Sources/CursorSentinelCore/     Agent detection, sleep, voice
Sources/CursorAccessibilityExplorer/   Debug CLI
App/Resources/                  oneko.gif and cat sound files
scripts/package-app.sh          Build Cursor Pal.app
scripts/install-app.sh          Install to /Applications