Which Cursor model each agent in the Cursor native bundle is pinned to, why, and how to change it.

When you install the Cursor target (mewkit init --target cursor), every bundled agent ships with a concrete Cursor model pinned in its frontmatter — not a provider-neutral tier. Every target pins per agent in its own vocabulary: Claude Code in agent frontmatter (see Claude Agent Models) and Codex as a model plus reasoning effort (see Codex Agent Models). Session-level tier routing by task complexity is separate — see Model Routing. Cursor exposes a real model picker per agent, so the bundle assigns each agent the model that fits its role.

How the mapping works

Each agent file at .cursor/agents/<name>.md carries a model: field. Agents are grouped into four tiers by what they do:

Tier	Model	Why
Advisory	`claude-fable-5`	Open-ended reasoning and reframing — the strongest model earns its cost here.
Deep	`claude-opus-5[effort=high]`	Planning, review, and security need maximum reasoning with high effort.
Standard	`claude-sonnet-5`	Everyday build, research, and documentation work.
Mechanical + integration	`composer-2.5[fast=true]`	Fast, high-volume, low-ambiguity work — Cursor's fast model is enough.

Per-agent assignments

The bundle installs a small core pack by default (explore, planner, reviewer); the other agents ship in opt-in packs. The model each agent uses is the same whether it is in the default install or an opt-in pack.

`claude-fable-5` — advisory

advisor
brainstormer

`claude-opus-5[effort=high]` — deep reasoning

architect
evaluator
planner
reviewer
security

`claude-sonnet-5` — standard

analyst
developer
documenter
journal-writer
project-manager
researcher
story-sizer
ui-ux-designer

`composer-2.5[fast=true]` — mechanical and integration

Mechanical roles:

explore
git-manager
tester
shipper

Jira and Confluence integration agents (fast is enough — these are high-volume, tool-driven roles):

jira-admin, jira-agile, jira-analyst, jira-bulk, jira-collaborate, jira-dev, jira-estimator, jira-evaluator, jira-fields, jira-issue, jira-jsm, jira-lifecycle, jira-ops, jira-relationships, jira-search, jira-time
confluence-bulk, confluence-collaborate, confluence-page, confluence-search, confluence-spec-analyst

Model-id format

Cursor accepts either inherit (use the parent/session model) or a model id with optional bracketed options:

claude-opus-5[effort=high]        # reasoning effort
composer-2.5[fast=true]           # fast variant
claude-opus-5[effort=high,context=300k]   # combine options
claude-sonnet-5                   # base id, no options

Options are id=value pairs separated by commas, and which options apply depends on the model. See the official Cursor models and subagents docs for the current list.

Account-tier caveat

Some pinned models (claude-opus-5, claude-fable-5) require a paid Cursor plan. On a basic-tier account those agents may be unavailable and Cursor will error or fall back. If you are on basic tier, change the affected agents to a model your account can run (for example composer-2.5 or claude-sonnet-5), or set them to inherit.

Changing an agent's model

Edit the model: field in the agent file:

.cursor/agents/planner.md

---
name: planner
description: ...
model: claude-opus-5[effort=high]   # change to any valid Cursor model id, or `inherit`
readonly: true
is_background: false
---

Use any id from the Cursor models list. inherit makes the agent follow whatever model the session is using.

Cursor Agent Models