Sideboard shells out to each agent’s own CLI. Install the ones you want on your PATH and authenticate. Cursor uses a user-installed @cursor/sdk plus a CURSOR_API_KEY (Settings → Agents → Cursor → Install). Sideboard does not pack the Cursor SDK — so agents can update it without a new Sideboard build.
npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
npm i -g @openai/codex
npm i -g opencode-ai@latest
npm i -g @cursor/sdk
export CURSOR_API_KEY="cursor_..."Then sideboard detect (or Settings → Agents) shows which harnesses are installed and signed in.
| Agent | How it runs |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | Official CLI on PATH |
| Codex | Official CLI on PATH |
| OpenCode | Official CLI on PATH |
| Cursor | User-installed @cursor/sdk + API key |
| Brightsy | Optional chat-only adapter |
Mechanical control (list, send, diff, land) stays on the Sideboard CLI — zero tokens. Use MCP when an agent needs judgment across threads or needs to open a pane in the desktop.
Connect the Sideboard MCP from each harness so an agent can drive the board. Typical stdio command: sideboard mcp (or npx -y sideboard-mcp). Packaged Sideboard.app writes the absolute Node + bundled MCP path on launch.
See Remote integrations for Settings → Agents vs Git / Issues / Slack / Connectors.