workspace-course-topics

Workflow: Launch Cursor in the ballpark directory

Purpose: Open Cursor with the ballpark repo as your workspace.

⚠️ Working directory

You must be in: ~/GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark

Run this now:

cd ~/GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark && pwd

Expected output: /home/.../GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark or /Users/.../GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark

Do not proceed until you see this output.

Why this matters

When you run cursor . from a directory, Cursor opens with that directory as the workspace root. If you run cursor . from the wrong directory (e.g., models/ or your home directory), Cursor will be in the wrong context and many things won’t work correctly:

The Python environment won’t be found
File paths in notebooks will be wrong
Git operations will fail or behave unexpectedly

Verify first

1. Verify terminal context

Run:

echo $HOME

Expected: /home/... (Linux/WSL) or /Users/... (Mac)

If you see C:\...: You’re in Windows context. See verify terminal context.

2. Verify Cursor CLI is installed

Run:

which cursor

Expected: A path like /usr/local/bin/cursor or similar

If “cursor not found”:

Open Cursor manually (from Applications or Start menu)
In Cursor: Cmd+Shift+P (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows) → “Shell Command: Install ‘cursor’ command in PATH”
Restart your terminal

Steps

Navigate to ballpark:
```
cd ~/GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark
```
Confirm you’re in the right place:
```
pwd
```
You must see ballpark at the end of the path.
Launch Cursor:
```
cursor .
```
Verify Cursor opened correctly:
- Look at the Explorer panel (left side)
- The ROOT folder should be named ballpark
- You should see files like README.md, models/, .venv/ at the top level
- If you see We_Would_Like_In_Econ-ARK at the top level, you’re in the wrong directory

If Cursor opens in wrong context (Windows)

If Cursor shows Windows paths or PowerShell terminal:

In Cursor: Ctrl+Shift+P → “Remote-WSL: Reopen Folder in WSL”
Or: Close Cursor, ensure you’re in WSL terminal, then run cursor . again