RL4 for Cursor IDE: Setup, Workflow, and Daily Usage Guide

Cursor IDE Is Powerful — Until It Forgets

Cursor IDE is the most capable AI code editor available today. Its AI chat, agent mode, and tab completion make development faster than ever. But every Cursor user hits the same wall: start a new session, and your AI assistant has zero memory of what you built yesterday.

RL4 fixes this. It is an extension for Cursor IDE that captures your development context — every conversation, every file change, every decision — and makes it permanently available to your AI assistant via MCP. No more re-explaining. No more context loss.

Here is how to set it up and use it every day.

Installation: 2 Minutes to Persistent Memory

Step 1: Install RL4

1. Open **Cursor IDE**
2. Go to the Extensions panel (Cmd+Shift+X)
3. Search for **"RL4"**
4. Click **Install**

RL4 registers its MCP server automatically. No manual configuration needed.

Step 2: Verify the MCP Connection

1. Open Cursor Settings → MCP
2. Look for **"rl4"** in the server list
3. Status should show **green** (connected)

If the status is red, restart Cursor. RL4 auto-registers on startup.

Step 3: Run Your First Snapshot

Open any project in Cursor and trigger a snapshot:

1. Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P)
2. Type **"RL4: Run Snapshot"**
3. RL4 scans your workspace, captures evidence, and builds your first context package

After this, RL4 creates the `.rl4/` directory in your project:

.rl4/
├── evidence.md             # Activity journal
├── timeline.md             # Enriched project timeline
├── evidence/
│   ├── chat_history.jsonl  # All captured messages
│   ├── chat_threads.jsonl  # Thread summaries
│   ├── activity.jsonl      # File save/create/delete events
│   └── sessions.jsonl      # Detected work sessions
└── snapshots/
    └── file_index.json     # Content store checksums

Your AI assistant can now access all of this data through RL4's 14 MCP tools.

The Daily Workflow: How to Use RL4 in Cursor

Morning: Resume With Full Context

When you open Cursor in the morning, your AI has no memory of yesterday. With RL4, you start differently:

1. Open a new chat in Cursor
2. Type: **"Use RL4 to resume where I left off"**
3. Cursor calls `run_snapshot` automatically
4. Your AI receives a compressed context package with your recent sessions, decisions, and file changes

Instead of spending 15 minutes re-explaining your project, you are productive in 30 seconds.

During Work: Search Your History

Need to remember why you chose PostgreSQL over MongoDB last week? Instead of scrolling through old chat threads:

1. Ask Cursor: **"Search RL4 for the database decision"**
2. Cursor calls `search_context` or `rl4_ask`
3. RL4 returns the exact conversation with citations — file path, date, and thread ID

The `rl4_ask` tool works like Perplexity for your codebase. Ask a natural language question, get a cited answer with sources.

When Switching Tasks: Preserve Context

Working on feature A, need to switch to bug B? Your context for feature A would normally be lost. With RL4:

1. RL4 continuously captures your activity in the background
2. When you return to feature A, your AI can retrieve the full context
3. No manual save needed — RL4's auto-capture handles it

End of Day: Your Context Is Already Saved

RL4 captures context automatically throughout the day:

• Every chat message is logged to `chat_history.jsonl`
• Every file save/create/delete is tracked in `activity.jsonl`
• Work sessions are detected and grouped in `sessions.jsonl`

Tomorrow morning, everything is there. Your context carries overcontext carries over/cursor/blog/stop-re-explaining-code-ai without any manual effort.

Key Features for Cursor IDE Users

RCEP Compression

RL4 compresses your development context using RCEP (Reversible Context Extraction Protocol). Instead of dumping thousands of raw messages into the context window, RCEP extracts the essential decisions, constraints, and patterns.

Every compressed artifact gets a SHA-256 checksum for integrity verification. You can prove that context has not been tampered with — critical for team handoffs and code reviews.

Pattern Detection

RL4's Pattern Detector analyzes your development activity to identify:

• **Recurring file modifications** — which files change together
• **Common error patterns** — mistakes that keep happening
• **Architectural patterns** — design decisions that emerge over time

This enriched data helps your AI assistant give more relevant suggestions based on your actual development patterns, not just the current file.

KPI Aggregation

RL4 tracks development metrics automatically:

• **Session duration and frequency** — how you work
• **Files touched per session** — scope of changes
• **Conversation depth** — how complex your AI interactions are
• **Context utilization** — how often AI accesses your history

These KPIs help you understand your AI-assisted workflow and optimize it over time.

Timeline Enrichment

Raw file events and chat messages are transformed into a structured, enriched timeline:

• **Sessions** — grouped periods of activity
• **Bursts** — high-intensity work periods
• **Causal links** — connections between conversations and file changes

When your AI calls `get_timeline`, it gets a narrative of your development — not just a log of events.

Supabase Auto-Sync

Your RL4 context automatically syncs to Supabase. This means:

• **Cross-device** — work on your laptop, continue on your desktop
• **Team sharing** — colleagues can [access your project context](/cursor/blog/onboard-developer-ai-context-guide)
• **Backup** — your development history is safe even if your local machine fails

Real Example: A Day With RL4 in Cursor

Here is what a typical day looks like:

9:00 — Open Cursor. Ask AI to resume.
        → RL4 loads context from Friday (3 sessions, 47 messages, 12 file changes)
        → AI immediately knows: working on auth refactor, using JWT, tests passing

9:05 — Start coding. RL4 captures in background.

11:30 — "What did we decide about token refresh?"
        → rl4_ask returns: "Dec-004: 15-minute refresh with sliding window [Jan 14]"

14:00 — Switch to bug fix on different feature.
        → RL4 keeps capturing the new context

16:00 — Back to auth refactor.
        → "Resume the auth work from this morning"
        → RL4 search_context finds the morning session instantly

17:30 — Close Cursor. Everything saved automatically.

Zero time spent on context management. No re-explanation neededNo re-explanation needed/cursor/blog/why-rl4-over-manual-summaries.

Getting Started

RL4 transforms Cursor IDE from a single-session AI tool into a persistent AI workspace. Your conversations, decisions, and patterns accumulate over time — making your AI assistant smarter every day.

Install, run your first snapshot, and start building context that lasts.

**Install RL4 free**Install RL4 free/cursor/form — 2-minute setup, persistent AI memory for every Cursor session.