# A local editing menu ended repetitive AI image swaps Source: Author: Chevis Zhou July 9, 2026 ยท 3 min read Replacing an image on this portfolio used to take a conversation. I would describe the picture, the agent would search the repository for the file and the MDX tag that used it, and I would check that it had found the right one. Cropping, repositioning or rewording a caption meant the same search again. The edit was never the hard part. Finding where the thing on screen lived in the code was, and I was paying for that search on every small change. ## [Why the search was the slow part](https://cheviszhou.com/writing/claude-code-vs-cursor#why-the-search-was-the-slow-part) Media on this site sits several layers from what a visitor sees. `next/image` serves rewritten URLs, the copy lives in MDX, and the files live under `public/`. From a screenshot, an agent has to work backwards: match a class name or a caption, narrow the candidates, then pick one. It usually picks correctly, but I still had to confirm it. When I compared tools in July 2026, Cursor's in-editor browser could take me from a selected element to nearby source much more directly than a terminal agent working from a screenshot. That was useful for code-level styling. It did not help with the edits I repeated most, which were about media files and content props. ## [The menu](https://cheviszhou.com/writing/claude-code-vs-cursor#the-menu) So I had Claude Code build the lookup into the dev server once. On localhost, right-clicking an image opens a menu that already knows its source file and the MDX tag that places it: - **Reveal** or **open** the real file. - **Replace** it with a local file. The new file's type is checked from its bytes, and MDX references are rewritten when the name changes. - **Copy** its relative or absolute path. - **Set** rounded corners, fill type and fill position, which write props on the tag. - **Edit** a caption, or the headline and lede in a study's frontmatter. The dev menu on a case-study image, with file actions, a corner toggle and a hint for the hovered item. ![Cursor with its in-IDE browser open on a case study page; a custom right-click menu on an image shows Reveal in Finder, Replace with local file, copy-path actions, and a Rounded corners toggle, with a side panel explaining the hovered action](https://cheviszhou.com/images/writing/cursor-dev-menu-replace.png) Every action is a deterministic write limited to an allowlist of props and fields. No model runs when I use the menu. A file watcher pushes replaced images and edited MDX to the open page, so the change appears without a manual reload. Captions open a raw editor that writes to the media tag in the MDX source. ![The same right-click menu on a figure caption, offering Edit caption, a deterministic write to the MDX media tag that reloads after save](https://cheviszhou.com/images/writing/cursor-dev-menu-caption.png) ## [Keeping it local](https://cheviszhou.com/writing/claude-code-vs-cursor#keeping-it-local) The menu only exists in development. Its routes return 404 in production and reject cross-origin and local-network requests, so the ability to write files never reaches a deployed page. Every edit it makes is an ordinary change in git, reviewed in the same diff as anything an agent or I wrote. ## [What changed](https://cheviszhou.com/writing/claude-code-vs-cursor#what-changed) Routine media work no longer needs an agent. Replacing a screenshot, changing its fit or fixing a caption is one gesture, and the result is visible immediately. The agent's time goes to work that is not tied to a single visible element, such as a new content component or a change across several files. The broader habit is the one I kept: when I ask an agent to repeat the same lookup, I look for a small tool that removes the lookup. Here, one build replaced a conversation I had been repeating for every image. ## Related Writing - [My portfolio had no client, so I set its limits first]() - [Moving builds from Framer to code made specs checkable]() - [One engagement record now feeds my client portal]() [All writing]()