If you’re a developer in 2025, chances are you’ve heard about Cursor the AI-powered code editor that feels like having a genius co-pilot sitting beside you. But just installing Cursor isn’t enough. To truly get the most out of it, you need to know the tricks that make Cursor shine.

In this post, we’ll explore:

• What Cursor really does behind the scenes
• How to use prompts effectively
• Customizing AI behavior
• Collaboration tips
• Hidden shortcuts and extensions

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🧠 What Is Cursor, Really?

Cursor isn’t just “VS Code with AI.”
It’s an entirely reimagined development experience. It builds on the familiar VS Code interface (since VS Code is open source) but integrates an AI assistant that understands your codebase contextually not just file by file, but project-wide.

Think of it like this:

You explain what you want to build, and Cursor helps you code it cleanly, not just efficiently.

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💬 Talk to Cursor Like a Teammate

Most people just type small prompts like:

“fix this and make no mistakes”

and move on. Well, this won’t help much it’ll just make you spin from one problem to another.
The secret is: Cursor responds best to natural, detailed, human prompts.

Try something like:

“Hey Cursor, this function is too slow. Can you optimize it for readability and performance while keeping variable names consistent, please?”

Don’t forget to say please. You’ll notice Cursor’s output becomes more context-aware and developer-friendly.

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🚀 YOLO Mode

One of the coolest features that people often overlook in Cursor is letting the agent write code until it verifies the code is correct beyond just lint.
To do this, you need to turn on YOLO mode.

Go to Settings → Turn YOLO Mode On:

Then tell Cursor what permissions it has here’s a good default prompt:

any kind of tests are always allowed like vitest, npm test, nr test, etc.  
also basic build commands like build, tsc, etc.  
creating files and making directories (like touch, mkdir, etc) is always ok too

👀 Watching Cursor Work

You don’t need to set up test directories or context manually Cursor will read your package.json and figure things out. It’s surprisingly smart.

Watching it work feels magical. Cursor creates a test file, writes implementation code, and runs tests automatically. If tests fail, YOLO mode kicks in Cursor iterates until everything passes.

Of course, you still need to babysit it sometimes. There will be moments where it drifts off track. Just hit Stop and say:

“Wait, you’re going off track reset and try again.”

Eventually, all tests pass and you’ve written zero lines manually.

🧪 Building on Existing Test Suites

Cursor doesn’t just create new tests it can extend existing ones.

You can say:

“Add a few more test cases for edge cases, then make sure all tests pass.”

In large projects, this shines. For example, in a compiler project, you can feed Cursor broken code samples from logs and say:

“Run this code and see what doesn’t compile, then write a test for that issue and update the converter until all tests pass.”

This workflow keeps your codebase robust and continuously improving.

🎨 Visual Editing with Fusion

Sometimes, you generate a component and think,

“Hmm, this spacing feels off…”

Instead of describing it again, just use Fusion Cursor’s visual editing mode.

You can:

   - Edit components visually like in Figma
   - Adjust spacing and layout directly in your project
   - Update your real code automatically

It’s like magic: build with AI, refine visually, and ship faster.

🐛 The Bug Finder

This underrated tool compares your branch with main and finds potential logic errors.

Press Cmd + Shift + P → “Bug Finder” Cursor will analyze diffs to spot risky changes like missing null checks or forgotten zero cases.

It’s not perfect, but it’s surprisingly good at catching sneaky regressions before PRs.

🏁 Conclusion

Overall, Cursor is an incredible AI coding companion. If you’re only using it for autocomplete, you’re missing out.

Try the full agent features let it build, test, and debug with you. The more you collaborate with it, the smarter and more efficient your workflow becomes.

It’s not about replacing developers it’s about empowering them to build better products faster.

That’s it for my best Cursor tips.