hob vs Cursor
Cursor is a code editor built on VS Code, with its own agent, its own models, and cloud agents. Cursor 3 added an Agents Window for local and cloud agents.
hob is built around the agent CLIs you already use, on your own Claude, ChatGPT, and provider accounts. It is the workspace where those agents do the work, show you the result, and take you to the code that matters.
At a glance
| Topic | hob | Cursor |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A workspace for coding agents: panes, terminals, worktrees, previews, code editing, review, history, and automations. | An AI code editor (a VS Code fork) with an agent and an Agents Window. |
| Agents | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build, run as their official CLIs. | Cursor's agent, with Cursor's own models and third-party models. |
| Accounts and inference | Your own subscriptions and keys. hob does not resell inference. | Model usage is billed through Cursor, with extra usage at API rates. Your own API keys work for chat models. |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, and Linux; headless on your own server. | macOS, Windows, and Linux. |
| Agents working together | Agents open panes and previews, start a delegate, message another agent pane, and file issues, across providers. | Local and cloud agents, worktrees, and coordinator agents that hand work to subagents. |
| Record of the work | Commits and issues link to the turn that produced them, in a local database. Search past conversations from History, and agents search the same history themselves. | Checkpoints and search across past transcripts. |
| Price | Pro $50/mo, Pro+ $75/mo with remote access and headless, billed annually. First month free. | Free Hobby plan; paid plans from $20/mo, plus usage beyond what is included. |
Why pay for hob?
Most tools in this category are free, or come with a model subscription. Here is what a hob subscription buys.
Always use the best. No tooling changes.
Agent tools change every month. A new model takes the lead, a harness ships a feature, a new practice spreads. hob brings the best of the whole agent stack into one app, so each improvement reaches you where you already work.
hob builds the workspace once, for all your agents. Agents fork, queue, and schedule the same way in Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. Your agents open live previews, point you at the element they changed, take your markup on an image, PDF, or web page, and ask each other for reviews. Every commit made through hob links to the conversation behind it, recorded on your machine, not in your repository. One setting gives every agent the same personality.
Every harness wants to keep you inside its own ecosystem. hob keeps each one optional. Use whichever agent is best this month, and keep your workspace, history, and automations exactly as they are.
You never leave hob
Code, web pages, PDFs, images, documents, and spreadsheets (beta) open in hob beside the work. Mark up any of them for an agent. Agents annotate them for you just as easily.
Agents that know hob
Every agent starts with hob's instructions. From its first turn, it opens panes, previews, and diffs, points you at a detail, and coordinates with other agents.
The subscriptions you already pay for
hob runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build on your own accounts. You pay hob for the workspace, never for tokens.
No reason to sell you tokens
hob does not resell inference, so it earns nothing when you spend more. Every change we ship aims to make your work faster and easier.
Change models, keep the workspace
Switch model or account from the pane. For another provider, or a local model through OpenCode, open a new agent beside it; it can read the recorded task. Your workspace, history, and automations stay the same.
Your data stays yours
Conversations and history live in a local database on your machine. hob's servers never hold your code or your sessions.
Support from the people who build it
You work with the hob team directly. You are a name to us, not an issue number, and your feedback reaches the people who decide what ships next.
Fitted to your team
For teams, we help adapt hob to how you work, from onboarding to the workflows and automations your projects need.
Orchestration or collaboration
Most tools in this category orchestrate agents. They start sessions, isolate them, and show you their state. hob does that too. Its larger aim is collaboration: people and agents operate the same workspace.
In hob, an agent opens the preview, diff, or file beside its conversation. It reads and operates a live web page while you watch, annotates an image or PDF at the detail you need to judge, and asks you a question in place. It starts a second agent for a bounded task, such as a review, messages another agent pane, and files the issue it found. When it commits through hob, the commit links to the turn that produced it, so the reasoning is one click away months later.
It works in the other direction too. Mark up an image, PDF, web page, or spreadsheet to show an agent exactly what you mean, and send the markup with your request.
You choose how involved you are. Stay hands-on and review every step. Or go hands-off: give a task to a team of agents, let them divide and review the work, and run the repeatable parts as a scheduled automation. hob keeps the record either way.
Your subscriptions, not a second bill for tokens
If you already pay for Claude Pro or Max, or ChatGPT, hob uses those accounts through the official CLIs. You pay hob for the workspace, never for tokens. Cursor's agent runs on usage billed by Cursor. Your own API keys work for chat models, and per-token API billing is not the same as a subscription.
Agents that take you to the code
In hob, an agent does not leave you to search for what changed. It sends an attention link that brings the exact target into view, such as a file line, a web element, a terminal command, or a setting, with a spotlight and the agent's note.
When a change needs more than one stop, the agent offers a walkthrough: the behavior in the preview, the code that produces it, and the check that verifies it, in order. You choose when to start it.
When you want to change the code yourself, edit it in place. Code and Markdown panes support direct editing, with find and autosave, so a quick fix never sends you to another app.
Choose hob if
- You already use Claude Code, Codex, or OpenCode and want to keep your own accounts.
- You want agents from different providers in one workspace.
- You want agents to point you at the exact line, element, or command to review.
- You want each commit and issue linked to the conversation behind it.
- You want your agents on a headless server you control, with access from a phone.
Questions
- Is hob a Cursor alternative?
- Yes. hob runs Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode on your own accounts, and its agents take you straight to the line, element, or command that matters. When you want to change code yourself, you edit it directly in a hob pane.
- Can I use my Claude Max subscription with hob?
- Yes. hob runs the Claude Code CLI with your own Claude account, so your subscription covers the model usage.
- Does hob include model access?
- No. hob is not a model provider and does not resell tokens. You bring the agent CLIs and accounts you already use.
Try hob with the agents you already use. Your first month is free.