Cursor alternative for AI-native engineering teams
Cursor accelerates the engineer.
Hyrax architects the codebase.
Cursor is one of the fastest ways to write code, and it makes individual engineers markedly more productive. Hyrax exists because that velocity is the reason architecture drifts: it audits the codebase those changes land in, and delivers verified pull requests.
Hyrax audits roughly 400 of its own repositories.
Free plan: full access, up to 100 PR reviews a month, a $30 starter credit, and $10/month ongoing.
[Hyrax] Refresh session token before expiry
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Why teams switch
What changes when Hyrax runs above the tools.
Judgment above the agents
Cursor executes the task it is given. Hyrax decides what is worth doing and whether the result fits the system it lands in.
Verified before review
Every fix runs the project baseline tests, build and lint, and passes a second reviewer agent, before the pull request exists.
Context that compounds
The map of the codebase lives in the repository and improves with every merge, so the next decision starts from everything learned before it.
Comparison
Cursor writes code. Hyrax decides what the codebase needs.
Workflow
Comments on a diff, or a verified pull request.
- 01A developer assigns Cursor a task.
- 02Cursor writes code for that task and stops when the task is done.
- 03The team decides whether the change fits the wider system, then merges.
- 01Maps the codebase and keeps the map in the repository
- 02Applies architectural judgment across six domains
- 03Opens a verified pull request that a human merges
Getting started
From install to the first verified pull request.
Install the GitHub App
Grant read access to the repositories in scope. No card is required to start.
Hyrax maps the repository
Discovery writes HYRAX.md and .hyrax/discovery into the repository, so humans and AI tools read the same context.
Review the first pull request
Approved improvements arrive as verified pull requests. A human merges every one.
The honest verdict
Both tools solve real problems.
Choose Cursor if
The goal is to write and ship code faster. Cursor is a leading tool for that and Hyrax is not an alternative to it, since Hyrax has no editor.
Choose Hyrax if
Velocity is already solved and the codebase is paying for it. Hyrax audits what the team is accumulating, ranks it, and returns fixes verified against the project tests.
Free plan, then per seat with usage based limits.
Free plan with a $30 starter credit and $10/month ongoing. Paid is $30 per user per month, and each paid user gets $30/month of credits.
FAQ
Questions about Cursor and Hyrax.
Yes, and most teams run both. Cursor keeps doing its job. Hyrax works at the level of the whole codebase, decides what is worth changing, and delivers verified pull requests. Nothing about the Cursor setup has to change.
No. Cursor is where code gets written, and Hyrax has no editor and no authoring surface. Hyrax runs at the repository level after the fact: it maps the codebase, audits six domains, and opens verified pull requests. Teams that write more code with Cursor tend to get more out of Hyrax, not less.
Discovery writes HYRAX.md and a .hyrax/discovery directory, which document the architecture, conventions and risk areas of the codebase. Everything else arrives as a normal pull request on its own branch. Hyrax has no write access to the default branch.
The free plan includes full access, a $30 starter credit and $10/month of credits ongoing, with no card required. The paid plan is $30 per user per month, and each paid user gets $30/month of credits. Pull request reviews are included on every plan.
Installing the GitHub App and granting access to a repository takes a few minutes. Hyrax maps the codebase, then runs the first audit and returns findings ranked by severity and effort. The first verified pull requests follow once an audit is approved.
Build what you're proud to ship.
GitHub-native. Human-controlled. Verified before merge.