TL;DR: Cursor CLI (
cursor-agent) takes image input, but getting one in from the terminal follows terminal rules, not editor rules. The reliable method is a file path in your prompt:look at ./shots/bug.png and fix the layout. Ctrl+V paste works or fails depending on your terminal (Windows Terminal eats it, WSL and SSH break it), and drag-and-drop usually just inserts the path for you, which is fine, because the path is what works.
The editor and the CLI are different worlds
In the Cursor editor, images are easy: click the attach button in chat or drag a file into the panel. If that’s what’s failing for you, that’s a different article: Cursor paste image not working.
Cursor CLI is a terminal program, and terminals treat images the way they treat everything: as text, or not at all. The agent itself is multimodal, so once an image reaches it, it reads it fine. The whole game is delivery.
Method 1: a file path in the prompt
This works in every terminal, every session type, every time:
look at ./screenshots/checkout-bug.png — the button 404s on mobile, trace it
The agent reads the file straight off disk. Relative paths from the repo root are the least typing. This is the method everything else is a shortcut for, and it’s identical across Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI, same mechanics, same reasons.
Method 2: Ctrl+V, if your terminal allows it
Clipboard image paste in a terminal agent depends entirely on which terminal you’re in, and the failure is usually silent:
| Where you run Cursor CLI | Image paste |
|---|---|
| VS Code / Cursor integrated terminal | Usually works |
| iTerm2, Terminal.app (macOS) | Ctrl+V, not Cmd+V |
| Windows Terminal | Terminal grabs Ctrl+V as text paste |
| WSL2 | Clipboard boundary breaks it |
| SSH session | Never; clipboard doesn’t cross the wire |
| tmux | Flaky without extra config |
If pasting does nothing, you’re not holding it wrong, you’ve hit one of these walls. Fall back to the path.
Method 3: drag and drop
Drag an image file onto the terminal window and most terminals insert its path as text. That’s not a failure, that’s the good outcome: the path lands in your prompt and the agent opens the file. Add your instruction around it and send.
Over SSH
Cursor CLI’s headless mode makes it a natural over SSH, and SSH is exactly where clipboards give up. The file has to exist on the machine where the agent runs: scp it over and reference the remote path. The full set of remote workflows is in pasting images into a terminal agent over SSH, and every fix there applies verbatim to Cursor CLI.
Invoke turns the clipboard image into a PNG on disk and pastes the file path into your terminal — one hotkey, works in Hyper, Wezterm, Windows Terminal, and WSL2. It's also the fastest way to dictate prompts to Claude Code. Free for 7 days, then $49 once.
Quick answers
Can Cursor CLI see images at all? Yes, it takes multimodal input. Screenshots of bugs, mockups to build from, diagrams. Delivery is the only hard part.
Why does Ctrl+V do nothing? Your terminal intercepted it or your clipboard can’t reach the session (WSL, SSH, tmux). Use a file path.
Windows snip → prompt, fastest way? Win+Shift+S puts pixels on the clipboard, but the CLI wants a path. Save the snip as a file and reference it, or use the one-hotkey version below.
The one-hotkey version
The path method’s only cost is the save-find-type detour, and that’s the part Invoke deletes. Snip with Win+Shift+S, press the image hotkey, and the snip is saved as a PNG with its path pasted into your terminal, ready for cursor-agent, Claude Code, or whatever you’re driving. Then hold the dictation key and say the actual request. Local Whisper on your GPU, $49 once. Free 7-day trial.