Using Cursor as my AI pair-programmer — a personal take
I’m a backend software engineer with over a decade of experience primarily in Java. I started this blog to share what I’ve learned in a simplified, approachable way — and to add value for fellow developers. Though I’m an introvert, I’ve chosen to put myself out there to encourage more women to explore and thrive in tech. I believe that by sharing what we know, we learn twice as much — that’s precisely why I’m here.
I’ve been using Cursor as part of my daily development flow and wanted to share what’s worked (and what hasn’t) from my own experience. I’ll keep this casual and short.
Quick note: I’m not affiliated with Cursor in any way. This is just my honest experience using it as part of my daily development flow.
Quick intro — what is Cursor?
Cursor is an AI-powered coding editor that acts like an extra (very eager) developer: it reads your repo, runs agent-style tasks, edits files, suggests fixes, and can even scaffold features. The real game changer for me is that Cursor has the whole codebase as context. You don’t need to paste files or explain the entire project — you just reference what you want, and it knows what you mean.
Pricing
Cursor has a free option and paid tiers. Honestly, the free tier didn’t help me much beyond getting a feel for the tool. The real value came once I switched to the paid plan, and I’m grateful my team enabled it for us. On paid plans you get a limited number of requests each month, and you can also set an extra buffer of requests if someone goes over — which is especially useful for teams.
My overall impression
I’m genuinely impressed. When you give Cursor a clear task with a simple scope and good instructions, it can really deliver. Some people compare it to having a junior dev working for you — eager to move fast and do as much as possible. I completely agree.
Where Cursor really helped me
Bug fixing: Quick suggestions to try out, which makes debugging less painful.
Asking questions about the codebase: Instead of searching forever, I just ask Cursor about specific parts of the repo.
Implementing new features with clear scope: It’s great at well-defined, non-ambiguous tasks.
Remembering syntax/commands: Especially across multiple languages and tools.
Running commands directly: This feature has been surprisingly useful. Instead of switching back and forth, I can run commands right from Cursor and keep my flow.
But it’s not perfect
It makes mistakes and sometimes gives “bandaid” fixes (like just adding a null check without solving the real root cause).
It can get stuck repeating the same approach or stuck in general
You still need to test, review, and ask hard questions. Think of it as a junior dev — you’re still the one driving.
It might overengineer solutions at times
AI hallucinates and gives you wrong answers or partially right ones
Things that helped me get more out of Cursor
Split complex tasks into steps. Easier to validate each result.
Use git intentionally. Feature branches, small commits, incremental progress, stashes, etc to record the steps that are in a good shape or acceptably good to go. That will save you when you need to reverse things safely
Run QA and tests. Don’t trust the shiny “all fixed” message until you confirm.
Ask for tests. Make Cursor write them, then review and improve.
Provide detailed context. Logs, corner cases, knowns/unknowns, filenames, code fragment — the more thoughtful you are at providing guidance, the better the output.
Track usage. Requests are limited, so I keep an eye on how many I’ve used.
Pair it with ChatGPT. I use ChatGPT for general questions or planning, Cursor for codebase-aware tasks.
Be specific when reverting changes. Otherwise, it might undo more than you expect.
Batch steps into one request when possible. Saves credits.
Keep learning prompt engineering. Makes a big difference in quality.
Know when to pivot. If it’s stuck, switch strategies or take over manually.
Still use docs/Stack Overflow/debugging. AI is great, but not everything.
And yes — don’t waste requests saying “thank you” 😅.
Final thoughts
I’d say Cursor is absolutely worth it. You just need to learn how to use it well: give it scope, guide it, question it, and keep testing. The better you are at driving, the more you’ll get out of it. For me, it’s taken a lot of the heavy lifting and repetitive tasks off my plate, while still leaving me in control of the important decisions.
What about you? Have you tried Cursor as your AI pair-programmer? How do you use it day-to-day? I would love to hear your experience as well!
