--- source: https://carbone.io/integration/cursor.html title: "Cursor Document Generation, Generate PDF, DOCX, XLSX from Your Word, Excel, PowerPoint Templates with Carbone" description: "Build document generation into your app from Cursor. Install the Carbone Skill in ~/.cursor/skills and add the MCP server so Cursor writes correct Carbone templates and renders branded PDF, DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX from your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint designs." generated_at: "2026-07-07" --- # Cursor ![cursor logo](/integration/cursor/logo.svg) ![Carbone logo](/img/carbone_icon_v3_github.png) Generate branded PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from Cursor with the Carbone Skill and MCP server. **[Install the Carbone Skill](/documentation/developer/ai/skills.md#installation-cursor)** ## Generate real Office documents from Cursor with Carbone Cursor is the AI code editor developers live in, and it speaks both of Carbone's AI surfaces natively: the Model Context Protocol and the open Agent Skills standard. Install the Carbone Skill so Cursor writes correct Carbone templates, add the MCP server so it can render them, and ship document generation straight from the editor. Ask Cursor for an invoice in DOCX, a contract in PDF, a report in XLSX, and Carbone renders it from one JSON payload into the template your team designed in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Why developers choose Carbone in Cursor: - **Native MCP and Agent Skills support.** Cursor was an early adopter of both. Unzip the Carbone Skill into `~/.cursor/skills`, add the Carbone MCP server in settings, and Cursor's agent designs templates and renders documents without leaving the editor. - **Design templates in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint**, or in HTML or Markdown. No proprietary editor, and no code-only templating syntax like Handlebars or Jinja to learn. Your team owns the design; Cursor fills in the data. - **Wire it into your product.** Point Cursor at your data model and let it scaffold the Carbone API call in your stack, whether that is Node.js, Python, PHP, or Go, so your users export branded documents on demand. - **100+ output formats.** PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, CSV, HTML, Markdown, JPEG, PNG. Real editable Office files, not screenshots embedded in a DOCX wrapper. - **Deterministic and predictable at scale.** One Carbone template plus one JSON payload produces the exact same document every time, at predictable subscription pricing, not a per-token bill. - **Battle-tested in production.** Carbone powers document workflows in finance, legal, healthcare, and the public sector. **[Install the Carbone Skill](/documentation/developer/ai/skills.md#installation-cursor)** **[Set up the Carbone MCP](/documentation/developer/ai/mcp.md)** ![Generate real Office documents from Cursor with Carbone illustration](/integration/cursor/image1.webp) ## Cursor document generation workflows: invoices, contracts, and reports - **Ship a document-generation feature.** Ask Cursor to wire Carbone's API into your app so your users export branded invoices, contracts, or reports. Cursor writes the integration; Carbone renders the files. - **Scaffold a template from your data.** Point Cursor at the JSON your API returns or your database schema, and it designs the matching Carbone template plus the render call that fills it. - **Invoice and quote generation at scale.** "An invoice with line items, a conditional VAT row, the total in euros, and the VAT line hidden for exempt customers." Cursor writes valid Carbone tags on the first try; Carbone renders thousands per hour. - **Migrate from Conga Composer, PDF Butler, JasperReports, Apache POI, Aspose, Docxtemplater, Jinja, or Handlebars.** Cursor rewrites legacy template syntax into clean Carbone tags. - **Fix and validate templates in the editor.** Paste a broken Carbone tag into Cursor, get a working one back, checked before you render. No support ticket. - **Render directly from the editor.** With the Carbone MCP, Cursor calls Carbone and returns the finished PDF, DOCX, XLSX, or PPTX in the agent panel. **[Browse template examples](/examples/index.md)** **[See all supported formats](/documentation/design/overview/template-feature.md)** ![Cursor document generation workflows: invoices, contracts, and reports illustration](/integration/cursor/image2.webp) ## Cursor to PDF: turn HTML or Markdown into a polished document Cursor is exceptional at writing HTML and CSS, and Carbone renders both HTML and Markdown as native template formats. Ask Cursor to design a one-page resume, a product datasheet, an investor report, or a landing-page-style proposal in HTML or Markdown, then hand the result to Carbone: one API call returns a print-ready PDF (or DOCX, ODT) with page breaks, headers, footers, loops, conditions, and your brand styles. Reach for this pattern when you don't need a pre-existing Office template, for example one-off documents, marketing collateral, or technical brochures. See the [HTML templates](/documentation/design/template-formats/html.md) and [Markdown templates](/documentation/design/template-formats/markdown.md) guides for the syntax and best practices. ![Cursor to PDF: turn HTML or Markdown into a polished document illustration](/integration/cursor/image3.webp) ## Where hand-coded document generation falls short Hand-rolling document generation with a library like Apache POI, OpenXML, or a headless-browser PDF step is fine for a quick draft. For production, three things break, and Carbone fixes each: ✗ **Slow and brittle to build.** Office file formats are complex, and low-level libraries take weeks to wire up and break on every edge case. ✓ **Carbone** fills a real Office template your team designs, so there is no low-level file code to write or maintain. ✗ **Locked to developers.** Every wording or layout change becomes a code change, a pull request, and a redeploy. ✓ **Carbone** keeps the design in a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file your business team edits directly, without touching the codebase. ✗ **Hard to scale and keep consistent.** Headless-browser PDF steps are slow and memory-hungry, and the output drifts between versions. ✓ **Carbone** renders the same document every time from one template and one JSON payload, with predictable pricing. Bottom line: Cursor helps you design the template and wire the integration; Carbone handles the part that has to be exact, merging your data to produce the same document every time. ![Where hand-coded document generation falls short illustration](/integration/cursor/image4.webp) ## Carbone Skill and MCP: render documents from Cursor The Carbone Skill is the knowledge layer. Unzip it into `~/.cursor/skills/carbone` (or `.cursor/skills/carbone` for a single project) and it teaches Cursor's agent the full Carbone templating language: tag syntax, formatters, conditions, loops, `:set` patterns, HTML and Markdown templates, and best practices. Cursor then writes correct Carbone templates on the first try, and knows how to populate yours. The Carbone MCP server is the action layer, a document generation MCP for AI agents. Add it in Cursor's MCP settings and the agent can call Carbone directly to upload templates, render documents, convert formats, and manage your template storage, all without leaving the editor. Use the Skill on its own to design and fix templates. Add the MCP when you want Cursor to render the finished document end to end. **[Learn more about the Carbone Skill](/documentation/developer/ai/skills.md#installation-cursor)** **[Learn more about the Carbone MCP](/documentation/developer/ai/mcp.md)** ![Carbone Skill and MCP: render documents from Cursor illustration](/integration/cursor/image5.webp) ## Document automation at scale Once your template is ready, plug Carbone into [n8n](/integration/n8n.md), [Make](/integration/make.md), [Zapier](/integration/zapier.md), [Salesforce](/integration/salesforce.md), [HubSpot](/integration/hubspot.md), [Odoo](/integration/odoo.md), or any of our [other integrations](/integration/index.md). Build the template once in Cursor, generate documents at scale, automatically. **[See all integrations](/integration/index.md)** ![Document automation at scale illustration](/integration/cursor/image6.webp) ## Carbone works with every AI assistant Explore the dedicated pages for [Claude](/integration/claude.md), [ChatGPT](/integration/chatgpt.md), [Grok](/integration/grok.md), [Microsoft Copilot](/integration/copilot.md), [Google Gemini](/integration/gemini.md), [Vibe by Mistral](/integration/vibe.md), [Meta Llama](/integration/llama.md), and [DeepSeek](/integration/deepseek.md). ![Carbone works with every AI assistant illustration](/integration/cursor/image7.webp) ## Trusted by 800+ paid customers in 40+ countries ## Related topics - [Zapier](/integration/zapier.md) - [Vibe](/integration/vibe.md) - [Subnoto](/integration/subnoto.md) - [Salesforce](/integration/salesforce.md) - [Retool](/integration/retool.md) - [Python](/integration/python.md)