Cursor 3.8 adds /automate skill and six new triggers for cloud automation sessions
Version 3.8 landed on June 18 as Cursor's most substantial Automations update yet. At the center is a new /automate skill that takes a plain-language description of a task and builds the automation configuration automatically, per the Cursor changelog.
What shipped
Previously, setting up an automation in Cursor required manually selecting triggers, writing instructions, and configuring tools. The /automate skill replaces that assembly process: type what you want to happen inside a local agent session and the system figures out the rest.
Six new trigger types also shipped in 3.8.
On the Slack side, reacting to any message with a designated emoji now starts an automation tied to that message. Teams can route work directly from chat without context-switching into a separate task tracker or IDE.
GitHub coverage expanded by five event types: issue comments on non-PR issues, inline PR review comments, PR review submissions, review thread status changes (resolved or unresolved), and workflow-run completions. New marketplace templates pair with these triggers for patterns teams run constantly, including triaging failed GitHub Actions builds and auto-fixing reviewer comments.
Computer use is now on by default for all cloud agents in Automations. Per the changelog, agents can produce demos and artifacts of their work. Smaller additions in the release include automations that save in incomplete states without losing data, a default option to open a PR without specifying one manually, and support for deleting memory files.
Why it matters
Before /automate, the configuration overhead in Cursor Automations kept the feature mostly inside the hands of developers who had already studied the trigger model. Plain-language setup changes that. A developer who has never built a Cursor automation can now describe an outcome and have the IDE produce a working starting point.
The GitHub trigger set is the more tactically significant addition for larger engineering teams. A cloud agent can now watch for a failed CI run, attempt a fix, and open a PR, completing a cycle with no human intervention at any step. Pair that with the Slack emoji trigger and the same loop can be kicked off by a product manager reacting to a Slack message, without ever opening the IDE.
What to watch next
No plan-level breakdown accompanied the 3.8 launch. Whether /automate and computer-use defaults are gated to Business subscribers or available to all paid plans will shape how broadly the new capabilities roll out. Cursor's docs and pricing page are the place to check for tier-specific access details.
Sources
- Cursor Changelog: Cursor, June 18, 2026 (primary)
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