The awkward middle: Cursor agent runs too long to watch, too short to switch away
A developer tracked how long Cursor's actually takes over a couple of weeks on a mid-size Next.js project. Scoped, small tasks averaged about 90 seconds. Anything touching more than 3-4 files, or needing a build/test loop, routinely took 4-8 minutes.
A few -style prompts took 15 minutes or more. For runs under a minute, watching the diff stream directly worked fine. Past that point, the habit was to context-switch to Slack or Twitter, and instead of returning at the intended 4-minute mark, 10-15 minutes would get lost.
The real cost of a long agent run turned out to be not the run time itself, but the habit of not returning promptly. Leaving a terminal bell on helped somewhat, but tabbing back late remained common.
Key points
- Small, scoped tasks: ~90 seconds on average
- Tasks touching 3-4+ files or needing build/test loops: 4-8 minutes
- Some -style prompts: 15+ minutes
- Sub-minute runs are fine to watch directly via the diff stream
- The 4-8 minute range is where context-switching led to losing 10-15 minutes instead of returning on time