Target selection

The installer resolves two target dimensions:

  • --agentic-system controls where skills, agents, instructions, the routing catalog, and the MCP configuration file are placed (for example .github/ and .mcp.json for GitHub Copilot CLI, .claude/ and .mcp.json for Claude Code). The agentic system is the MCP client, so it decides which MCP file is read.

  • --ide changes the MCP configuration file only when the agentic system reads a file owned by that IDE. Today this applies to GitHub Copilot inside VS Code, which reads .vscode/mcp.json. The IDE also decides which IDE extensions are proposed (--install-vscode-extensions).

When --ide none is used, no IDE-native folder is created.

Supported targets

Run cube agentic-ai list-supported-targets to see the targets marked supported in your release: --ide vscode|cursor|none and --agentic-system github-copilot|cursor|claude-code. The CLI accepts no other target ID.

Only the six pairs in the table below are accepted. project-add, project-deploy and setup reject any other pair, for example --ide cursor --agentic-system github-copilot, with TARGET_COMBINATION_NOT_SUPPORTED. --canonical skips this check because it writes no host-specific file.

File placement by dimension

Flags

MCP config file

Agentic content

--ide vscode --agentic-system github-copilot (default)

.vscode/mcp.json

.github/

--ide none --agentic-system github-copilot (Copilot CLI)

.mcp.json

.github/

--ide cursor --agentic-system cursor (Cursor IDE)

.cursor/mcp.json

.cursor/ (rules as .cursor/rules/*.mdc)

--ide none --agentic-system cursor (Cursor CLI)

.cursor/mcp.json

.cursor/ (rules as .cursor/rules/*.mdc)

--ide vscode --agentic-system claude-code (Claude Code extension)

.mcp.json

.claude/

--ide none --agentic-system claude-code (Claude Code CLI)

.mcp.json

.claude/

--canonical

.cube-ai/mcp.json

.cube-ai/

A project has one target. Once a context is deployed, project-add, project-deploy and setup reject any other --ide, --agentic-system or --canonical with TARGET_CHANGED_IN_DEPLOYED_PROJECT, and change nothing. To move a project to another target, run project-remove for each deployed context, then deploy again with the new target.

Rule of thumb

GitHub Copilot in VS Code requires the GitHub Copilot extension, and Claude Code in VS Code requires Anthropic’s Claude Code extension. The installer does not install or manage either extension. Install them separately from the GitHub Copilot extension Marketplace page and the Claude Code for VS Code guide. The optional --install-vscode-extensions flag applies only to extensions declared by toolkit contexts.

  • Pick the agentic system you chat with: it decides every deployed file, including the MCP config file.

  • Add --ide vscode when that agentic system runs inside VS Code: VS Code extensions are then proposed, and GitHub Copilot uses .vscode/mcp.json.

  • Same host for IDE and agentic system (e.g. Cursor): use matching values --ide cursor --agentic-system cursor.

  • Portable layout only: use --canonical when you want all deployed files under .cube-ai/ and are willing to reshuffle them later. Target specific host folders such as .github/skills/ or .vscode/ are not created or updated for deployed artifacts.

Deployment status follows the same split:

  • PLACED_BY_INSTALLER means files were written in the selected native locations.

  • AGENT_RESHUFFLE_REQUIRED means --canonical was used and the portable layout still needs host-specific reorganization.