The Cursor SEO Workflow: AI Agents That Ship Orders, Not Slop

Why Cursor operators need a different SEO workflow

You already delegate refactors to a coding agent. You paste Search Console exports into side chats. You generate meta descriptions from memory. Monday still starts with forty possible tasks and zero ranked queue. The Cursor SEO workflow problem is not missing AI. It is missing connected orders: what to fix, publish, and refresh on this domain, grounded in GSC, GA4, and your Knowledge Base, sorted so item one is item one.

Generic SEO plugins in the editor produce paragraphs. They do not produce decisions. Learn Domains closes that gap with Mission Briefs, the Opportunity Engine, and a thin CLI over the REST API so your agent reads priorities as structured JSON instead of hallucinating a backlog from training data.

This article is the wiring diagram: API tokens, CLI install, JSON flags for agents, credit checks, content draft handoffs, and the hard line on publish. Read the Mission Brief Method for ICEE scoring and the CLI doc for command reference. Stay here for the end-to-end agent workflow.

Architecture: API, CLI, and human-in-the-loop execution

The AI Growth Analyst category matters here: tools dump keywords; analysts return ranked orders with citations. Your Cursor agent should behave like the second, using Learn Domains as evidence, not as a prose fountain.

Setup: token, login, and first brief pull

1. •Create an API token in app settings. Store it in LEARN_DOMAINS_TOKEN or run learn-domains login.
2. •Install @learndomains/cli from the monorepo package or link locally during beta.
3. •Set LEARN_DOMAINS_API_BASE if you target staging; production defaults to app.learn.domains.
4. •Verify identity: learn-domains me --json confirms org and token scope.
5. •Pull priorities: learn-domains mission-brief latest --website yourdomain.com --json.
6. •Optional: learn-domains opportunities list --website yourdomain.com --json for the full queue behind the brief.

In Cursor, add a project rule or .cursorrules snippet: always fetch the latest Mission Brief before SEO or content tasks; never invent priorities; never call content create without confirming credits. The Learn Domains Operator Guide activation path still applies: website added, GSC connected, GA4 connected, Knowledge Base populated. Agents cannot fix missing data with confidence.

Full command reference lives in /docs/cli. API surface and rate limits are documented at /docs/api.

Weekly loop: brief → agent task → draft → publish record

Monday: pull the Mission Brief JSON into your Cursor workspace context. Assign order one to the agent with the URL, query cluster, and ICEE rationale attached. Tuesday through Thursday: implement technical fixes in repo, request a Content Operations draft for refresh orders, or open an AI Analyst thread inside the app when Confidence is medium.

Content orders use learn-domains content create or the API equivalent. Output is always a draft in Learn Domains with internal links from the URL Library, FAQ blocks, and QA flags. You edit, publish on your CMS manually, then mark published in the app. That manual step is product policy, not a missing feature. Auto-publish would destroy Execution discipline and margin protection.

Credit-aware agents: margin protection in the terminal

Every costly Learn Domains action is credit-gated: Mission Brief regeneration with AI enrichment, AI Analyst sessions, content drafts, deep opportunity analysis. The CLI exposes learn-domains credits balance --json so your agent can precondition tasks. If balance is low, the operator path is upgrade, purchase packs, or finish deterministic work that does not spend fuel.

Do not loop content create in Cursor hoping the model will fix slop. One draft per order, human review, then ship. The billing docs explain monthly grants versus packs. Mission Fuel is not unlimited API access; it is priced execution with logged usage events.

• Check credits before batch agent runs across multiple URLs.
• Prefer deterministic brief fields when AI narrative is optional.
• Log which order triggered spend in your commit or task notes.
• Use --json errors to stop agent retries on 402 responses.

“An agent that burns credits silently is a liability. An agent that reads balance first is an operator.”

. Learn Domains margin doctrine

Prompt patterns that work in Cursor

Effective prompts anchor on brief orders, not open-ended SEO. Example: Given this Mission Brief JSON, implement order 1: refresh the integration guide at /docs/foo. Preserve H1. Expand section three for striking-distance queries listed in the order evidence. Do not publish. Open a Learn Domains content draft when the markdown is ready.

For technical SEO orders, ask the agent to produce a PR checklist: redirects, internal links, schema, Core Web Vitals notes. Cross-check against the Knowledge Base so product claims stay accurate. For consolidation orders, require an AI Analyst intent map in the app before the agent merges files.

Anti-patterns

• Generate ten blog posts without a brief order.
• Skip GSC evidence and optimize for volume keywords.
• Publish directly from the agent to production CMS.
• Re-run mission-brief latest hourly without finishing order one.
• Treat CLI output as strategy; it is a queue.

Knowledge Base and URL Library in agent context

Agents without memory hallucinate positioning. Populate the Knowledge Base with product facts, ICP boundaries, and voice rules before you automate drafts. The CLI cannot replace that ingestion step. Retrieval grounds Content Operations and AI Analyst the same way it should ground your Cursor session: paste relevant KB excerpts into context or ask the agent to fetch doc sections you maintain in repo sync with the vault.

Internal linking orders should pull targets from the URL Library, not improvised exact-match anchors. The modern SEO stack article explains how URL Library fits the execution layer. Topical authority in 2026 explains why entity-consistent links beat random blog cross-links.

What this workflow does not do

Learn Domains for Cursor is not autonomous SEO. No agent publishes on your behalf. No silent cron rewrites your pricing page. No third-party keyword database dumps in the current product. Portfolio triage in the Operator Terminal is separate from this CLI workflow.

You still own outcomes. The workflow removes tab-switching and priority arguments, not judgment. When the brief says consolidate two URLs, you choose the keeper. When credits are low, you refresh a money page before you run an exploratory audit. That is the operator contract.