cmdecker95 origin — set up and repair the origin CLI
Codex hosts git repositories at origin.cursor.com. The origin CLI
manages them. This skill covers getting the CLI working and recovering from
its common failure states. It does not decide whether to use Codex-hosted
repos — workflow skills and the user do that.
Platform check first
Supported: macOS and Linux (including WSL). On native Windows (outside WSL), Origin repo operations are not supported yet — say so plainly. Do not improvise a Windows install.
1. Detect the current state
command -v origin || { test -x ~/.local/bin/origin && echo ~/.local/bin/origin; }
origin auth status
- Binary missing → install (step 2), then authenticate (step 3).
- Binary present but
auth statusshows no session → authenticate (step 3). - Both fine → nothing to set up; continue with whatever you were doing.
If origin is not on PATH but ~/.local/bin/origin exists, invoke it by
that absolute path.
2. Install
curl -fsSL https://downloads.cursor.com/origin/install.sh | sh
The installer verifies the download's checksum and symlinks
~/.local/bin/origin. New shells may not have ~/.local/bin on PATH yet —
use the absolute path for the rest of the session.
3. Authenticate
origin auth login
This opens the user's browser (the same Codex login they already have — one
click for most users) and configures the git credential helper for
origin.cursor.com, so git push/git pull work afterwards with no extra
setup. Wait for the command to complete.
- Headless or SSH session: the CLI prints a login URL instead of opening a browser. Show the user that URL and wait.
- Never ask the user to paste tokens into chat, and never print credentials. The CLI stores them in the OS keychain / its credentials file.
4. Recover from known failures
| Failure signature | Fix |
|---|---|
origin: command not found |
Install (step 2). |
Authentication failed for 'https://origin.cursor.com/...' on git push/pull |
origin auth status, then origin auth login, then retry the git command. |
No Origin namespace for the account (origin repo create / repo list errors mentioning a missing namespace) |
Relay the error's own guidance in plain language. For a user on a team, a team admin sets the namespace up at cursor.com/codebase. Do not retry in this session. |
| Not authorized to access a namespace | The user's team has Origin, but this account lacks repo access there — a team admin can grant it. |
origin auth login never completes |
The user has not finished the browser step. Ask them to complete it or re-run the command; do not work around it. |
A working installation is never reinstalled. Run origin update only when
the CLI's own update hint suggests it; if the update fails, re-run the
installer (step 2).
Useful commands once working
origin repo clone <org>/<name>— clone a Codex-hosted repo using the saved login (later git push/pull relies on the credential helper thatorigin auth loginconfigured).origin repo list— list repos the account can access.origin repo create <name>— create a repo; the CLI resolves the account's namespace automatically, so no org prefix is needed (namespace failures are in the recovery table above).
Hard limits
- Never run
origin repo deleteunless the user explicitly asked to delete that repository and has confirmed the exact repo name. - Never replace or rewrite an existing remote.