Cursor

Cursor is a code editor built around AI. It's a fork of VS Code, so it supports all VS Code extensions, but with deeper AI integration than Copilot: it can reference your entire codebase and reason across multiple files.

Installation

Download from cursor.com. Import your VS Code settings and extensions on first launch.

Key features

Codebase-aware chat

Cursor indexes your entire repository. You can ask questions about code you haven't opened:

Where is the database connection initialised?
Why does the OrderService depend on UserService?
Find all places where we call the payments API.

Reference specific files with @filename in the chat.

Inline editing (Cmd+K)

Select code and press Cmd+K to edit it in place with an instruction:

Add input validation using Zod
Rewrite this using async/await instead of callbacks
Extract this into a separate function

Composer (multi-file editing)

Cursor's Composer lets you instruct AI to make changes across multiple files at once. It's useful for larger tasks like adding a new feature end-to-end.

.cursorrules

Create a .cursorrules file at the project root to give Cursor persistent instructions (similar to CLAUDE.md for Claude Code):

- TypeScript only, strict mode
- Use Drizzle ORM for all database queries
- All API handlers must validate input with Zod
- Prefer named exports over default exports

Cursor vs. Copilot

	Cursor	Copilot
Codebase indexing	Full repository	Open files only
Editor	Standalone (VS Code fork)	Plugin for existing editors
Multi-file edits	Yes (Composer)	Limited
Rules file	.cursorrules	No direct equivalent
Inline edit shortcut	Cmd+K	Ctrl+I

Tips

• Use @codebase in chat to explicitly search across all files
• Reference specific files and functions with @filename and @function
• Use Composer for new features; use inline edit (Cmd+K) for targeted changes
• Keep .cursorrules updated as your project conventions evolve