Cursor User Guide

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Cursor is an AI-powered code editor. This guide covers subscription options, settings synchronization, tool calling, upgrade methods, and completion features to help developers use this IDE more efficiently.

I’ve been using Cursor for several months, which has effectively replaced VSC as my lightweight editor/IDE. Here are some details from my usage experience.

Purchase or Subscription

Currently, Cursor doesn’t offer any promotions or regional pricing. The only option is to subscribe through the official website at $20/month or $192/year. I recommend the monthly subscription, as AI tools are constantly emerging, and you might want to switch tools at any time.

Cursor Settings

Sync Settings

Cursor settings currently don’t support automatic synchronization. Fortunately, there aren’t too many settings, so you must manually configure each client. VSC plugin extensions need to handle synchronization on their own.

Manual Confirmation for Tool Calls

Cursor supports enabling automatic execution without confirmation, along with blocklist and allowlist settings.

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I recommend enabling YOLO mode but implementing an allowlist, such as using prompts to limit which tools can be automatically executed.

Upgrading Cursor?

  1. The Cursor currently updates automatically.
  2. To manually update immediately, open the command palette and select Attempt Update.

Partial Completion Acceptance

By default, Cursor doesn’t enable partial completion selection. However, when the completion content is too extensive, and you only need the first line, you can allow the partial completion feature.

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Cursor Rules

Recommended reference project: https://github.com/Mawla/cursor_rules

Installing Cursor Command

Cursor also provides a command-line interface similar to VSC. It can be installed in your system’s bin directory. After installation, you can launch Cursor directly from the command line, such as quickly opening the current directory.

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Usage Tips

Hotkeys

Three different AI invocation methods solve other scenarios. Getting used to a few hotkeys will make you feel twice as efficient.

  • ⌘+k: Invoke AI in the editing area at any time to modify code.
  • ⌘+i: Invoke AI Agent to execute various operations automatically.
  • ⌘+l: Invoke AI Chat for inquiries.

Common Issues

Completion Not Working?

  1. Click on the Cursor Tab in the bottom right corner to check if it’s disabled.
  2. If nothing is working, check if your account has run out of quota or if there’s a network issue.

At the end

Try Cursor; you might be pleasantly surprised by its offers.