Claude Code vs Cursor: slash commands and context syntax compared
Claude Code and Cursor's agent CLI both expose a slash-command layer on top of a chat prompt, and the two vocabularies overlap more than either vendor's marketing suggests: /clear, /model, /plan, /goal, /fork, /rewind, /rename, /resume and /logout exist in both with the same meaning. The table below pairs each task with the literal command in each tool, taken from the two reference pages on this site; a dash means the tool has no documented equivalent.
| Task | Claude Code | Cursor |
|---|---|---|
| Start a fresh conversation | /clear name | /clear |
| Shrink the context window | /compact instructions | /summarize |
| Switch model | /model model | /model [filter] |
| Enter plan mode | /plan description | /plan [prompt] |
| Set a long-lived goal | /goal condition|clear | /goal [objective] |
| Fork the session | /fork prompt | /fork |
| Rewind to an earlier point | /rewind | /rewind |
| Rename the session | /rename name | /rename <name> |
| Resume a previous session | /resume session | /resume |
| Run a shell command from the prompt | ! (at start) | /shell [command] |
| Attach a file as context | @ | @<file> |
| Ask a side question | /btw question | — |
| Read-only question mode | — | /ask |
| Attach the branch diff | — | @Branch |
| Manage MCP servers | /mcp reconnect <server>|enable|disable <server>|all | — |
| Permissions / autonomy | /permissions | /run-everything [on|off|status] |
| Show cost or usage | /usage | — |
| Fix terminal newline keybinding | /terminal-setup | /setup-terminal |
| Sign out | /logout | /logout |
The differences are mostly about surface area. Claude Code's command list is roughly four times longer because it bundles many skills as slash commands (/code-review, /security-review, /deep-research, /verify, /simplify) and exposes infrastructure switches (/mcp, /hooks, /permissions, /sandbox, /remote-control). Cursor keeps the CLI list short and moves most of that configuration into the editor. Cursor's @-mention family is richer at the prompt level, with @Branch, @Commit, @Terminals, @Chats and @Browser, where Claude Code's prompt layer has @ for file paths and ! for shell.
Two naming traps are worth knowing when switching. Context compaction is /compact in Claude Code and /summarize in Cursor; shell access is a leading ! in Claude Code but the /shell command in Cursor. Everything else either matches by name or has no counterpart, so the cost of moving between the two is small.
Full references: Claude Code (111) · Cursor (37) · all comparisons