If you are a programmer, you are fed up with hearing about AI
If you are a programmer, you are fed up with hearing about products with artificial intelligence coming out more and more often. Well, actually even if you are not a programmer, today you hear it everywhere.
But, as a good programmer you must know the tools available and know how to use them, and that is why today I bring you some tricks so that you can use Cursor like complete professionals.
And whether we like it or not, artificial intelligence is here to stay, and my friend, either you adapt in this world and improve like the rest of the people or you get left behind.
In case you don’t know what Cursor is yet, it is a code editor. Well, actually it is a fork of Visual Studio Code, Microsoft’s editor, but Cursor, apart from costing money (and increasingly more, hehe), brings very interesting things that will truly make you more optimal and effective in your tasks.
Before starting with these tips and you telling me anything, I know that apart from Cursor there are many other IDEs for different prices that are also very useful, so if I see that this post is well received and you want to know tips for other similar code editors, let me know in the comments, although well, they are all very similar.
Well, let’s start.
Initial configuration: Do not skip this
As soon as we open Cursor the first thing is to select the project where we want to work. You already know that in the right bar we have the chat that we can assign in agent mode or in question mode (actually I don’t know if there is anyone left who assigns it in question mode honestly).
And here next to it you have the model selection. This is already an important point: here the Cursor people recommend that we leave it in auto mode and they manage it themselves depending on the complexity of what you have asked, but personally, when I know that I am going to ask for a task that is very expensive I like to indicate the model myself, for example the thinking version of Claude 4, which note, if it has the brain emoji it is the thinking version which thinks before answering but, obviously it costs you more tokens, so watch out for that. If you don’t want to complicate things put auto mode.
Now that we have the simple part, let’s go into the configuration and see what is the most optimal.
Configuration that will change your life
Here in the general tab the only thing I have activated is privacy mode, this will limit a functionality that I will show you later but here you decide if you want to share your code with Cursor or not.
Moving on to the chat tab I would recommend at least that you activate the TO-DO List so that Cursor makes a list of what it has to do. Also the Full Folder Context so that you can pass the context of an entire folder (later we will see the utility of this) and the Web Search so that it searches for information on the internet.
Other important options that will come in handy are Out of Context Edits, as it allows editing files out of context and Auto Fix Lints to fix linting errors.
Personally, to go faster I have the Auto Run Mode, it runs any command without asking me, here if it scares you you can always deactivate it or put in the list below which commands you allow it to do without confirmation.
And the rest of the settings are up to your taste.
Moving to the next tab always keep Cursor Tabs activated, which are Copilot’s suggestions that believe me work very very well, I like them more than Copilot.
And these two options of imports, both for TypeScript and for Python it automatically imports what we need.
Models and API Keys: The money issue
In the models if you notice it is the list of models that appears available in the selector below. Honestly as I said before I like Claude 4 very much but you can choose the one you want. There is some better one but keep in mind the token spending issue that will consume your soul.
Here you can put the API keys and call the same API or service that you have locally yourself, but as it indicates it may be more expensive than paying for Pro.
MCPs: The tools that will make your life easier
We arrive at an interesting part, the MCPs. I recommend 500% that you have MCPs configured, as they will make your life much easier. If you don’t know what it is I have a video where I explain it that I highly recommend, but basically they are tools that help us do certain tasks.
Here I leave you a list of official Cursor MCPs, which you click and it installs, but in my case I recommend at least the GitHub one to make commits, pull request, merges etc from the chat and this one here super interesting Context7, a very useful MCP that makes the LLM consult a completely updated library documentation, so that it will always consult examples of real documentation and above all the most updated ones.
Cursor Rules: Here is the magic
Now we come to an important part, the Cursor rules. And since I know that at this point in the post I have already lost all your attention I will put a Subway Surfers gameplay to retain you.
Cursor rules are the most useful, if you don’t use rules you are wasting the tool.
We have two types of rules: those that go at the level of the editor itself and you always have them, and those that go at the project level.
In this case, the ones that always go I ask it to answer me in English (or Spanish), to use the most recent dependencies, and a small prompt to tell it that it is a software engineer.
On the other hand in the project rules you have to put how you want the answers to behave based on the project, this is super important and will determine the quality of the answers.
I recommend that you put a project context rule where you explain what the whole project is about. And on the other hand expert in the type of language of the project, I here if you notice I have put how I want it to work, the folders, the code and that it ends up doing tests of everything it touches.
Super important.
Indexing: Do not forget this
In the indexing part apart from the basics of always keeping our project indexed, here you have a documentation section. Literally you can take the documentation of any software you are working with, paste the link and it indexes it. And then you can reference it in the chat. Very useful if you use external libraries.
Prompts that really work
Having said all this we already have our Cursor optimized, and now what would be left? Well we would have to make the prompts very well. It is important that you give it the maximum context possible. Here you will have to tag the documentation you have attached, or tell it to use an MCP or super important tag the files you want it to work on or look at. This in large projects is crucial, because although it has indexed the entire project if you indicate it it is much more efficient.
Remember that you can also tag folders so do not hesitate to do so if you see it necessary.
Conclusion: Do not get left behind
With all this that I have told you you should notice improvement when using Cursor, so you can not get left behind.
The truth is that Cursor is not perfect, but with a good configuration and knowing how to use it, it can become your best ally for programming. It’s like having a coworker who never gets tired, never complains and is always there to help you (although sometimes they make mistakes, but hey, nobody is perfect).
If you liked it and want me to bring more posts of this style let me know with your comment. This has been all and see you in the next one.
And remember, AI is not going to replace programmers, but programmers who use AI are going to replace those who don’t use it! 🚀
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