Cursor Agent — One Month Review

Why Cursor

Cursor is a code editor with deeply integrated AI. Built on VS Code so it feels familiar, but the AI features go much further than a plugin.

GitHub Copilot was autocomplete-level. Cursor’s agent mode is a different league. It reads files autonomously, modifies code, even runs terminal commands. Give instructions, AI writes code. “Vibe coding” is actually feasible now.

Here’s my honest review after a month of real-world use.

What Worked

Boilerplate generation is overwhelmingly faster. CRUD APIs, test code, type definitions — just delegate to AI. What would take 30 minutes takes 5.

Code refactoring is solid. “Split this function into smaller functions” produces reasonably well-structured results. Not perfect, but good enough as a first draft.

Debug assistance was unexpectedly strong. Paste in an error message and it identifies the cause with high accuracy, since it has the project context.

The Problems

A month of use also revealed clear issues.

Larger projects cause thrashing. Once you have dozens of files with complex dependencies, the AI starts losing context. It fixes one file while breaking another. Small projects feel magical. Big projects eat more time on cleanup than you saved.

Confidently wrong code. The AI will present non-functional code with full confidence. A recurring pattern: using outdated library APIs because the model doesn’t know the latest version.

Dependency creep. After a month, coding without AI feels tedious. That’s a dangerous signal. Tool dependency means decreased productivity without the tool.

Practical Usage Pattern

The workflow I’ve settled on:

New files, boilerplate → Delegate to AI
Modifying existing code → Get AI suggestions but review manually before applying
Core business logic → Write myself (AI for reference only)
Debugging → Ask AI first, investigate manually if it doesn’t solve it

The right framing is “AI assists coding,” not “AI does coding.” The developer must retain ownership. Same conclusion I reached when using ChatGPT for MSA design — the tools change, the principle doesn’t.