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Course Outline

The Architecture of the AI-Native IDE

  • Understanding how Cursor is built on a fork of VS Code with deep model integration
  • Comparing standard VS Code plus extensions against Cursor-native features
  • Covering Cursor's model hosting options: Claude, GPT, and custom endpoints
  • Overview of the roadmap from autocomplete to comprehensive agent workflows

The Composer and Multi-File Editing Capabilities

  • Invoking the Composer to plan changes across files
  • Reviewing generated edits before accepting or rejecting them
  • Managing undo and checkpoint states during extended Composer sessions
  • Verifying the build after applying Composer-assisted changes

Context-Aware Chat and Smart References

  • Utilizing @file and @codebase to focus chat context
  • Referencing specific functions, classes, and documentation files
  • Summarizing code intent before requesting modifications
  • Avoiding context overflow by narrowing references

Agent Mode and Autonomous Refactoring

  • Triggering agent mode with high-level prompts
  • Monitoring the agent as it plans, edits, tests, and iterates
  • Intervening when the agent proceeds in an incorrect direction
  • Handling merge conflicts following agent-driven multi-file rewrites

Installation and Model Configuration

  • Setting up Cursor on macOS, Windows, and Linux
  • Selecting and switching models based on task type
  • Using your own API key instead of Cursor's shared hosting
  • Configuring high-context models for navigating large codebases

Team Workspaces and Shared Context

  • Creating team workspaces and inviting members
  • Sharing custom rules, style guides, and context files
  • Establishing default prompts for recurring team workflows
  • Tracking usage and costs across the workspace

Custom Rules and Prompts for Consistency

  • Writing .cursorrules to enforce project-wide conventions
  • Automating code review comments through prompt engineering
  • Maintaining architecture decision records with agent assistance
  • Versioning rule files as part of the repository

Integration with Version Control and CI/CD

  • Generating commit messages from diff summaries
  • Using pre-commit prompts to run linters and type checkers before committing
  • Opening pull requests with AI-generated descriptions
  • Addressing review comments with targeted changes inside Cursor

Debugging Agent-Assisted Code

  • Tracing runtime errors back to agent-generated assumptions
  • Using the chat panel to investigate why a specific error occurred
  • Performing regression testing after broad automated refactors
  • Managing hallucinated imports and missing dependencies

Performance and Security Considerations

  • Assessing indexing speed and storage impact on large repositories
  • Excluding sensitive files from agent context automatically
  • Understanding Cursor's data retention and training opt-out policies
  • Navigating compliance requirements when using hosted models

Summary and Transitioning to Advanced Topics

  • Recapping the differences between Cursor and other IDE-first AI tools
  • Building a library of reusable prompts and rules
  • Staying updated with Cursor's monthly release cadence

Requirements

  • Experience using a modern IDE such as VS Code or JetBrains
  • Programming experience in any language
  • Fundamental understanding of LLM concepts and prompting techniques

Audience

  • Development teams evaluating or adopting Cursor as their primary IDE
  • Engineering managers responsible for procuring AI tooling
  • Freelance developers aiming to accelerate client projects with Cursor
 14 Hours

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