Tencil vs Cursor Annotate
Both let you point at your running app instead of describing it. Annotate, in Cursor’s Design Mode, works in the browser inside Cursor: you click elements or draw on the page, and Cursor’s agent gets the elements, their components and a screenshot. Tencil works on your dev site in your own browser and hands what you point at to Claude Code or T3 Code. It is free, open source and runs locally, with no account.
npx tencil- Run npx tencil once. Works with T3 Code or Claude Code, on any dev server.
- Press C and click it. Pick up a thread or start a new one, right on the page.
- Watch it change in place. Reply on the pin for another round, then resolve it.
- Review a whole page at once. Queue your comments, then send them all to your agent.
How it works
At a glance
Checked against Cursor Annotate’s own site on 28 October 2026.
| Tencil | Cursor Annotate | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An open-source overlay on your dev site and a daemon on your machine. | A mode of the browser inside Cursor’s Agents Window. |
| Where you point | Your dev site, in your own browser. | Cursor’s built-in browser. |
| What you do | Press C, click an element, type what should change. Select text to name the exact words. | Click elements, Shift-click for more, drag or draw on the page, edit text and CSS in place, or dictate a note. |
| What the agent gets | Component and owners with file and line (React 19), markup, selector, text, size, viewport, an optional screenshot. | Tag, id, classes, attributes, a selector path, the first 200 characters of text, size and position, six computed styles, a cropped screenshot, and the component stack in React, Vue and Svelte. |
| Who makes the change | Your agent, started by Tencil: Claude Code or T3 Code, under your own login. | Cursor’s agent. |
| Editor | Any: Tencil lives in the browser. | Cursor. |
| Reviewing | Progress streams onto a pin on the element, and you reply there. Batch mode sends several comments as one thread. | Notes go to the agent. With Batch edits on, they collect as numbered pins that one click sends. |
| Setup | npx tencil in your project. No account. | Built into Cursor 3.24.18 and later. |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Closed source |
Which should you choose?
They solve overlapping problems in different ways. Pick by how you like to work.
Choose Tencil if
- You work in Claude Code or T3 Code and want what you point at to land there.
- You want to review in your own browser, with its logins, extensions and devtools, and keep any editor.
- You want it free, open source and local, with no account.
Choose Cursor Annotate if
- You already work in Cursor and want pointing built into the editor.
- You want to draw on the page or box in an area, not only pick elements.
- You want to edit text and CSS by hand before the agent takes over, or dictate notes.
Tencil vs Cursor Annotate: questions
What people ask when they compare the two.
Its docs describe it in the browser inside Cursor’s Agents Window. Tencil loads on your dev site in whichever browser you use.
Yes. Keep Cursor as your editor: Tencil lives in your browser and hands pins to Claude Code or T3 Code, not to Cursor’s agent.
No. Tencil is open source under Apache-2.0 and runs on your machine without an account. Your agent runs under your own login.
Yes. Batch mode queues comments on their elements, and Send hands them to your agent as one thread, numbered like their pins. Annotate has a Batch edits setting that works much the same way.
More comparisons
How Tencil compares with other ways to point an agent at your UI.
- Tencil vs React GrabReact Grab copies a React element’s file, component and HTML for you to paste into your agent. Tencil sends it to your agent with your prompt and streams the change back onto the page.
- Tencil vs AgentationAgentation turns UI annotations into structured context you paste or serve over MCP. Tencil sends each pin to Claude Code or T3 Code and streams the change back onto the element.
- Tencil vs stagewisestagewise is an open-source agentic IDE with its own browser and agents on any model. Tencil adds element pins to the dev site in your own browser and hands them to Claude Code or T3 Code.
- Tencil vs OnlookOnlook is a visual editor where designers work on an app in code, on a canvas. Tencil adds pins to your dev site and hands each one to Claude Code or T3 Code.
- Tencil vs FrontmanFrontman runs its own AI frontend agent in your app, on the model provider you choose. Tencil hands what you point at to Claude Code or T3 Code, with no account and no server.
- Tencil vs PinpointPinpoint is a browser extension that hands notes on elements to your agent over MCP. Tencil starts Claude Code or T3 Code itself and streams the change back onto the pin.