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Switching editors is usually annoying because you have to relearn shortcuts, rebuild your settings, and figure out where everything moved. Moving from Cursor to Orbit Editor skips most of that, because Orbit deliberately mirrors Cursor's layout and workflow. This guide covers the actual steps, plus the couple of decisions worth making deliberately instead of on autopilot.
Download the build for your platform, macOS or Windows, from the download page. Apple Silicon and Intel Mac builds are both available, as are Windows x64 and Arm64 builds. Installation is a standard drag-to-Applications or installer flow, nothing unusual.
This is the one step that does not have a Cursor equivalent, because Cursor makes this decision for you. In Orbit, open Settings, go to Providers, and choose how you want to work:
You can add more than one provider and switch between them per task, so this is not a permanent decision either.
Orbit's default shortcuts match Cursor's for the most common actions: opening the chat sidebar, triggering inline edits, and switching between Ask, Plan, and Agent modes. If you customized shortcuts in Cursor, you will need to set those specific overrides again in Orbit's keyboard settings, since custom bindings do not transfer automatically between separate applications.
Orbit reads standard project structures the same way any editor built on similar foundations does. Open your existing repository the same way you would in Cursor. Your .gitignore, linter configuration, and editor-agnostic settings all continue to work unchanged, since none of that is specific to either editor.
If you used Cursor-specific configuration to give the agent persistent context about your codebase, conventions, or house style, check Orbit's documentation for the equivalent. The concept, giving the agent durable project context instead of repeating it every conversation, carries over even if the exact file format differs.
Once set up, the daily experience is intentionally unremarkable if you are coming from Cursor. Same chat sidebar. Same three modes. Same inline edit and accept or reject flow. The differences show up in a few specific moments.
With Cursor, a rate limit is the editor's ceiling. With Orbit, it is your provider's ceiling, which you can raise directly with that provider without touching your editor subscription at all.
In Cursor, this means picking from whatever models Cursor has integrated. In Orbit, it means adding a new provider or switching your active one, including models that are not necessarily on any editor's curated list yet.
Switching to a local Ollama model for a specific project takes one settings change in Orbit, with no code leaving your machine. There is no equivalent local-first path in Cursor today.
No automated import exists today. Most developers rebuild their handful of customized settings manually in under ten minutes, since the defaults already match closely.
Yes, and this is the recommended approach rather than a hard cutover. Keep Cursor installed while you get your provider and shortcuts set up in Orbit, then drop Cursor once you are comfortable, or keep both if you genuinely prefer having options.
Nothing about Orbit requires a team-wide switch. Since project files, linting, and repository structure are unaffected, individual developers can use Orbit while teammates stay on whatever editor they prefer, without breaking anything for anyone else.
If you are ready to try it, the full setup walkthrough is in the documentation, and platform-specific downloads are on the download page.
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