Plasmate for Cursor

April 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

Browser engine for AI agents - Convert HTML to Semantic Object Model (SOM) with 10-100x token compression.

Features

Fetch Page: Fetch any URL and convert to SOM, text, or markdown
Extract Text: Extract readable text content from web pages
Extract Links: Extract all links from a page in structured JSON

Requirements

Install the Plasmate CLI:

# From source
git clone https://github.com/nickarino/plasmate
cd plasmate
cargo build --release
cp target/release/plasmate /usr/local/bin/

# Or add to PATH
export PATH="$PATH:/path/to/plasmate/target/release"

Installation in Cursor

From VSIX (Local Install)

Build the extension:

npm install
npm run compile
npx vsce package

In Cursor, open Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
Run "Extensions: Install from VSIX..."
Select the generated .vsix file

From Cursor Marketplace

Search for "Plasmate" in the Cursor extensions marketplace.

Commands

Access via Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P):

Command	Description
`Plasmate: Fetch Page`	Fetch a URL and display as SOM, text, or markdown
`Plasmate: Extract Text`	Extract readable text from a URL
`Plasmate: Extract Links`	Extract all links from a URL

Configuration

Open Settings (Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) and search for "Plasmate":

Setting	Default	Description
`plasmate.path`	`plasmate`	Path to the plasmate executable
`plasmate.defaultFormat`	`som`	Default output format (som, text, markdown)
`plasmate.timeout`	`30000`	Timeout in milliseconds

Output Formats

SOM (Semantic Object Model)

Structured JSON representation of web page content, optimized for AI consumption:

{
  "tag": "main",
  "children": [
    {
      "tag": "h1",
      "text": "Welcome"
    },
    {
      "tag": "p",
      "text": "Page content..."
    }
  ]
}

Text

Plain text extraction of readable content.

Markdown

Formatted markdown output preserving document structure.

Usage Examples

Fetch Documentation

Open Command Palette
Run "Plasmate: Fetch Page"
Enter URL: https://docs.example.com/api
Select format: SOM
Result opens in new editor tab

Run "Plasmate: Extract Links"
Enter URL of page with links
Get JSON array of all links with text and href

Token Compression

Plasmate provides 10-100x token compression compared to raw HTML:

Page Type	Raw HTML	SOM	Compression
Blog post	50K tokens	2K tokens	25x
Documentation	100K tokens	5K tokens	20x
Landing page	200K tokens	3K tokens	66x

Troubleshooting

"Plasmate CLI not found"

Ensure plasmate is installed and in your PATH

Or configure the full path in settings:

{
  "plasmate.path": "/path/to/plasmate"
}

Timeout errors

Increase the timeout in settings:

{
  "plasmate.timeout": 60000
}

View logs

Open Output panel (View > Output) and select "Plasmate" from the dropdown.

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Compile TypeScript
npm run compile

# Watch mode
npm run watch

# Package extension
npx vsce package

License

MIT