cursor-best-practices
Installation
Summary
Guidance for maximizing Cursor productivity through planning, context management, and effective agent workflows.
- Start with Plan Mode for complex tasks and manage context by letting the agent find relevant code, starting fresh conversations when needed
- Extend agent capabilities using Rules for static context and Skills for dynamic, reusable operations
- Adopt test-driven development, use the agent to explore codebases, automate git operations, and run parallel agents for comparison
- Review AI-generated code with the same rigor as human-written code
SKILL.md
Cursor Best Practices
Best practices for working with Cursor to maximize productivity and code quality.
Core Principles
- Start with plans - Use Plan Mode (Shift+Tab) for complex tasks
- Manage context effectively - Let agent find context, start new conversations when needed
- Extend the agent - Use Rules for static context, Skills for dynamic capabilities
- Review carefully - AI-generated code needs review like human code
Key Workflows
- Test-driven development - Write tests first, iterate until passing
- Codebase understanding - Use agent to explore and learn codebases
- Git workflows - Automate common git operations with commands
- Parallel agents - Run multiple agents simultaneously for comparison
References
For detailed guidance, see:
references/planning.md- Plan mode and starting with plansreferences/context.md- Managing context and conversationsreferences/extending.md- Rules vs Skills, extending agentreferences/workflows.md- TDD, codebase understanding, git workflowsreferences/reviewing.md- Code review strategiesreferences/parallel-agents.md- Running agents in parallel