Cursor.ai

Cursor AI is a proprietary, AI-assisted code editor developed by Anysphere. It is designed to enhance developer productivity by integrating artificial intelligence features directly into the coding environment. Built as a fork of Visual Studio Code, Cursor incorporates familiar features with additional AI functionality, such as code generation, smart rewrites, and natural language queries of your codebase.

Key features

• Natural language interaction: Describe what you want to build or change using plain English, and Cursor will generate or modify the code for you.

• AI-powered code generation: Use the AI Composer to automate tasks, generate entire functions, and implement large-scale changes.

• Codebase understanding: Cursor can index your entire codebase, allowing you to ask natural language questions about the project’s structure, dependencies, and architecture.

• Agent mode: This feature allows the AI to complete tasks end-to-end, executing a series of commands while keeping the programmer in the loop.

• Smart code improvement: The editor can refactor and optimize your code by suggesting ways to simplify complex logic or remove unused variables.

• Context management: You can incorporate context from various sources, including external documentation, web pages, and git history, to provide the AI with richer information.

• Privacy mode: When enabled, this feature ensures that your code is never stored remotely or used to train models, adhering to industry-standard security practices. 

Who is it for?

• Developers: Seasoned and new developers can use Cursor to boost their productivity, reduce time spent on repetitive tasks, and focus on higher-level problem-solving.

• Teams: Cursor is used by engineering teams in various companies and offers features like team-wide rule enforcement and collaboration.

• Students: The platform provides a free tier for students to help them learn and develop projects more efficiently. 

Limitations

While Cursor is a powerful tool, it’s not a complete replacement for human developers. Some areas where it has limitations include: 

• Difficulty handling highly complicated codebases.

• The potential for false positives in bug detection due to limited understanding.

• Challenges with making context-aware changes across multiple files at once, though the company is actively working on improving this feature.