How to Use Cursor AI: 3 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Coding Workflow

In today’s fast-moving software world driven by AI, tools like Cursor AI, Windsurf, Claude Code have become kind of mandatory.

Whether you’re building features, fixing bugs, or reviewing code, these tools can dramatically improve productivity, reduce errors, and simplify complex tasks. But like any AI tool, it works best when you know how to fully leverage its capabilities.

In this post, we’ll explore 3 simple but highly effective ways you can make the most of Cursor AI - transforming it into your ultimate AI pair programmer.

1. Ask Cursor AI to Make a Development Plan Before Execution

One of the biggest mistakes developers (& Cursor AI) make is diving straight into code without proper planning. Instead, let Cursor AI generate a development plan or checklist before you write any code.

Simply prompt Cursor with questions like:

• “Create a step-by-step plan to build a user authentication system with OAuth2.”
• “List the components I’ll need for building a responsive admin dashboard.”
• “What are the possible edge cases for handling file uploads securely?”
• "Create a plan to build a chatbot using Rasa"

Review the generated plan, make edits wherever required, then execute coding based on the final plan.

By getting a clear, AI-generated roadmap upfront, you’ll avoid missed requirements, reduce rework, and ensure more maintainable code from the start.

2. Setup Cursor Rules to Control Output

Cursor allows you to define custom rules that act like coding guidelines for your AI assistant. These rules ensure Cursor’s output matches your team’s coding standards and project preferences.

Rules are either project scoped (applicable to 1 project) or user scoped (applicable to all projects).

You can configure rules for:

• File naming conventions
• Code formatting (e.g. camelCase vs snake_case)
• Framework-specific patterns (like Next.js or Django)
• Security and performance best practices
• Set response language or tone or add personal style preferences

By setting up these rules early, you eliminate inconsistencies and ensure that AI-generated code is fully aligned with your project structure.

The more rules you define, the more predictable and high-quality Cursor’s output becomes.

Read more about rules: here

3. Instantly Access Third-Party Documentation

One of Cursor AI’s strongest features is its ability to bring in real-time context from third-party docs.

Whether you’re using Stripe, Next.js, AWS SDKs, or any other library, you can set context in prompt by typing ‘@’

• @NextJS , @Stripe - You will see if the official doc is available in the autocomplete menu.

This eliminates time lost to tab-switching or hunting through docs - Cursor becomes your instant, searchable dev library.

Bonus Tip!

Don’t forget to enable Privacy mode in cursor AI.

Conclusion

Cursor AI is like having a co-pilot(no pun intended) in your IDE - but only if you learn how to talk to it effectively.

Start with planning prompts, set guardrails with rules, connect the right docs, and treat it like a smart teammate.

Over time, you’ll find where Cursor fits naturally into your workflows - acting like a thoughtful junior engineer with infinite patience.

With the right setup, Cursor becomes your most reliable developer assistant, saving time, improving quality, and reducing context switching.