Sharing One Cursor License Across Two macOS Accounts

I have two macOS user accounts. I have one Cursor license. Surely I can just symlink some directories and call it a day?

Not quite.

Here's what actually worked — and everything I tried that didn't.

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The Goal

Let both macOS accounts share a single Cursor login, settings, and extensions. No paying twice. No maintaining two configs.

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What Didn't Work: Direct Symlinks

The obvious approach: symlink the second account's Cursor data directly to the first account's directories.

ln -s /Users/michael/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor
ln -s /Users/michael/.cursor ~/.cursor

Then fix permissions, right?

chmod -R o+rX /Users/michael/.cursor
sudo chmod o+x /Users/michael
sudo chmod o+x /Users/michael/Library
sudo chmod o+x /Users/michael/Library/Application\ Support

Nope. macOS TCC (Transparency, Consent, and Control) blocks access to another user's ~/Library regardless of Unix permissions. Apple really doesn't want you doing this.

I wasted a solid hour trying different permission combos before realizing TCC was the actual blocker. Classic.

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What Actually Works: /Users/Shared

The trick is to move the data to neutral territory.

Step 1: Move Cursor's data to shared location

sudo mv /Users/michael/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor /Users/Shared/Cursor
sudo mv /Users/michael/.cursor /Users/Shared/.cursor

Step 2: Set ownership and permissions

sudo chown -R michael:staff /Users/Shared/Cursor
sudo chmod -R g+rwX /Users/Shared/Cursor /Users/Shared/.cursor
sudo chmod -R o+rX /Users/Shared/Cursor /Users/Shared/.cursor

The key insight: both macOS users are in the staff group. Group permissions matter more than you think.

Step 3: Symlink from both accounts

From the primary account:

ln -s /Users/Shared/Cursor ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor
ln -s /Users/Shared/.cursor ~/.cursor

From the second account:

ln -s /Users/Shared/Cursor ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor
ln -s /Users/Shared/.cursor ~/.cursor

Done.

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The Gotcha

Don't run Cursor from both accounts simultaneously. SQLite databases will conflict. Pick one account, work, quit, switch.

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The Permissions Rabbit Hole

Here's where I embarrassed myself. Multiple times.

1. Only set "others" permissions, not "group." Since both users share the staff group, macOS checks group permissions first. o+rX means nothing when g bits are wrong.
2. Forgot write permissions. Cursor needs to write cache files. Got EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '.../CachedData/...' on launch. Added g+w and moved on.
3. Didn't check the whole path. Each directory in the chain needs execute permissions. /Users/Shared is fine by default, but if you're debugging, check every step with ls -ld.

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Final State

Path	Points To
~/Library/Application Support/Cursor (both accounts)	/Users/Shared/Cursor
~/.cursor (both accounts)	/Users/Shared/.cursor

One license. Two accounts. Shared settings. Shared extensions.

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Why This Matters

Cursor costs $20/month. That's $240/year. If you're using multiple macOS accounts — maybe a work account and a personal account, or a clean account for screen recordings — there's no reason to pay twice.

Is it technically against Cursor's terms? Probably gray area. You're one person, one machine, one license. The data just lives in a shared directory.

I'll take my chances.

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