Cursor Team Marketplace

The situation

Cursor’s latest changelog lets admins set up a team marketplace before connecting a repository. That gives teams a place to define agent tooling first, then attach it to codebases later.

The change is about packaging, not just more settings. Cursor says first-party plugins can bundle MCP servers, skills, subagents, rules, and hooks, and admins can set each plugin to default off, default on, or required. Teams can ship a shared agent setup instead of having every developer assemble the same pieces.

For Cursor users, this fits the subagents-and-skills workflow. The question becomes: what should every teammate get by default, what should stay optional, and what must stay locked down? See subagents and skills.

What changed

Treat the marketplace as a governance layer, not a catalog. It helps when a team needs a repeatable baseline for agent behavior across projects, especially if the repo structure is still changing or several repos share the same conventions.

Cursor groups MCP servers, skills, subagents, rules, and hooks into plugins. That makes the plugin the unit to think about: one for repo conventions, one for review checks, one for a data connector. Keep each bundle small enough that someone can explain why it exists.

A small rule file still helps alongside the marketplace:

---
description: Enforce PR review hygiene for agent-authored changes
globs:
  - "**/*.ts"
  - "**/*.tsx"
---

- Check for tests when behavior changes.
- Flag any new MCP connector access for review.
- Prefer small diffs over broad refactors.

If your team already uses AGENTS.md, keep that file for repo boundaries and local conventions. Use the marketplace for reusable pieces around it. A clean split is: AGENTS.md for repository rules, a skill for repeatable task steps, and a plugin for distribution.

A practical rollout looks like this:

1. Write one short AGENTS.md fragment for the repo baseline.
2. Move repeated steps into a SKILL.md package with a clear description.
3. Add only the MCP servers the team actually needs.
4. Set each plugin to default off, default on, or required.
5. Test the bundle in one project before making it the team default.

A compact AGENTS.md boundary keeps the scope clear:

# AGENTS.md

- Use this repo’s conventions before any team-wide defaults.
- Ask before adding new external connectors.
- Keep agent changes reviewable in small commits.
- Prefer scoped rules over one global instruction file.

What teams should try

Use the marketplace to standardize the parts that should travel across repos, then keep repo-specific rules close to the code. That usually means:

• a shared plugin for conventions or review checks
• a skill for one repeatable task
• an AGENTS.md file for local boundaries
• a short checklist for reviewers

A review habit matters here. If a plugin includes hooks or MCP access, check whether the install mode matches the risk. Required fits baseline conventions and non-optional checks. Default on works for broadly useful helpers. Default off is better for experimental or sensitive integrations.

Starter checklist for admins:

• Identify the smallest set of shared agent capabilities.
• Separate repo rules from team-distributed packages.
• Review every MCP connector for scope and necessity.
• Choose install behavior intentionally.
• Document who can change marketplace settings.

Methodology note: Review the current agent setup before adding more automation. If the bundle cannot be explained in one pass, it is probably too broad.

Governance and workflow

The marketplace lowers setup friction, but it can also hide complexity if teams overbundle. A plugin that mixes rules, hooks, skills, and MCP access may be easy to install and harder to audit later.

Required installs are useful for non-negotiable conventions, but they should stay narrow. They can frustrate developers if the plugin includes behavior that only applies to one workflow or one repo family.

MCP servers also create a trust boundary. Every connector should be reviewed for scope, permissions, and failure modes. The marketplace makes distribution easier; it does not remove least-privilege review.

This changelog item is about team marketplace settings, not a replacement for repo-local instruction files. The safer pattern is to keep AGENTS.md, scoped rules, and task-specific skills close to the code, then use the marketplace to distribute the shared baseline.

Further reading

• https://cursor.com/changelog
• https://cursor.com/docs
• https://cursor.com/docs/context/rules
• https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction
• https://github.com/anthropics/skills/blob/main/README.md
• https://github.com/openai/skills/blob/main/README.md