Video: Building Fast Agentic Analytics with Cursor and Rill

Modern business intelligence is changing fast. It’s no longer just about dashboards — it’s about speed, automation, and enabling both humans and AI agents to work together seamlessly.

Rill is built for this new reality.

In this post, we’ll walk through how Rill enables a fully agentic BI workflow using tools like Cursor, local development environments, and modern CI/CD practices — all while delivering instant, production-ready insights.

Why Rill Is the Fastest BI Tool

Traditional BI tools slow teams down with rigid interfaces, manual configuration, and disconnected workflows.

Rill flips that model.

Instead of forcing you into a proprietary IDE or UI, Rill lets you:

• Use any development environment (like Cursor)
• Work locally with real data instantly
• Leverage AI coding agents to build and modify metrics
• Deploy seamlessly to production with modern workflows

The result: analytics at the speed of code.

Start Fast with Local Development + Cursor

Getting started with Rill takes minutes.

Using a simple command:

rill init

You can spin up a project with sample data and immediately begin exploring.

From there, developers can:

• Launch a local Rill environment in cloud preview mode
• Skip the built-in IDE entirely
• Use Cursor (or any AI-powered editor) for development

This flexibility is key. You’re not locked into a tool — you’re empowered by your workflow.

Built for Agentic Analytics

Rill isn’t just developer-friendly — it’s agent-ready.

With built-in support for:

• Cursor rules and instructions
• Local MCP server configuration
• Structured metric definitions

AI agents can:

• Understand your data model
• Safely modify metrics
• Generate analytics outputs automatically

This unlocks a new paradigm: AI-assisted BI development.

Define and Ship Metrics in Seconds

In Rill, metrics are defined in code — making them easy to version, review, and automate.

For example, adding a new metric like Cost Per Click (CPC) is as simple as:

1. Updating a metrics file via Cursor
2. Letting the agent interpret project context
3. Watching the metric appear instantly in your environment

No rebuilding dashboards. No manual wiring.

Just instant feedback and iteration.

Real-Time Updates Without Dashboard Rebuilds

One of Rill’s most powerful features is its automatic dashboard generation.

When you:

• Add a new metric
• Modify formatting
• Update definitions

Rill automatically reflects those changes across:

• Data explorer views
• Executive dashboards
• KPI summaries

This means:

👉 No manual dashboard maintenance
👉 No syncing issues
👉 No delays between change and insight

Customize Views with Intelligence

Beyond automatic dashboards, Rill supports custom executive views — curated layouts of KPIs and visualizations.

When adding a new metric like CPC, Rill intelligently:

• Places it in top-level KPI sections
• Integrates it into detailed tables
• Maintains visual consistency

This reduces the burden on analysts and ensures clean, decision-ready dashboards every time.

Global Changes Made Easy (e.g., Currency Formatting)

Need to update formatting across your entire analytics layer?

With Rill + Cursor:

• Change currency from USD to EUR in one pass
• Let the agent identify all relevant fields
• Instantly see updates reflected across the UI

This is bulk transformation without friction — something legacy BI tools struggle with.

Branding and Presentation Control

Rill doesn’t stop at analytics — it also supports presentation.

You can easily:

• Add company logos
• Adjust layout elements
• Fine-tune dashboard appearance

All through code or agent-driven workflows.

Because insights should not only be accurate — they should be presentation-ready.

Git-Native and CI/CD Ready

Rill fits naturally into modern engineering workflows.

From your local environment, you can:

• Initialize a Git repository
• Commit metric and dashboard changes
• Deploy directly to Rill Cloud

This enables:

• Version-controlled analytics
• Collaborative development
• Automated deployments

In other words: BI meets DevOps.

One Workflow for Humans and Agents

The real breakthrough is how Rill unifies:

• Human developers
• AI coding agents
• Data workflows

All within a single, flexible system.

You can:

• Work locally or in the cloud
• Use Cursor, GitHub, or any editor
• Automate repetitive analytics tasks

This is what modern BI should look like:
fast, programmable, and agent-driven.

The Future of BI Is Agentic

Rill represents a shift from static dashboards to dynamic, code-driven analytics systems.

Instead of asking:

“How do I build this dashboard?”

You start asking:

“How can agents help me evolve my analytics in real time?”

That’s the difference.

Get Started with Rill

If you’re ready to:

• Build metrics faster
• Eliminate dashboard maintenance
• Enable AI-assisted analytics workflows

Then it’s time to try Rill.

👉 Initialize your first project
👉 Connect your favorite editor
👉 Let agents do the heavy lifting