monitoring LeanCTX in cursor

[ArielSaadonCS]

Hi everyone,

I've tested LeanCTX several times and confirmed that it's installed and configured correctly. The token savings are significant, which suggests it's working.

However, when I ask Cursor whether LeanCTX was used during a task, Cursor says it wasn't used at all.

Is it possible that LeanCTX operates transparently and Cursor doesn't actually know when it's being applied? If so, what is the best way to verify that LeanCTX is active? Are there any logs, metrics, or other indicators I should check?

Thanks!

[NotAFlightRisk]

Yep, that's expected. lean-ctx init --agent cursor adds hooks to ~/.cursor/hooks.json that rewrite Cursor's own Shell and Read calls before they run (git status becomes lean-ctx -c 'git status', most Reads get pointed at a compressed copy). The agent's tool call is still a plain Shell or Read, so asking it isn't a reliable check. Native Grep/Glob are the exception - those get blocked with a pointer to ctx_search/ ctx_glob.

Ask lean-ctx instead:

lean-ctx doctor integrations     # should show Cursor MCP config + Hooks ok
lean-ctx config set debug_log true
lean-ctx debug-log tail 20       # after a Cursor task
lean-ctx gain --by-tool

The debug log records each Shell/ Read routing decision (and each ctx_* call), with where it went and why:

hook rewrite Shell -> lean-ctx (rewritable command): git status
hook redirect Read -> lean-ctx (redirected to ctx_read): /path/to/file.txt
hook rewrite Shell -> native (not a known read/search/list command): cd src

gain is the running total, the log is the per-task view. The Cursor guide covers the native Read bit too. Tested on v3.11.0.