Cursor

What it is

Cursor is an AI-first code editor built by Anysphere. It's a fork of VS Code with AI woven throughout — inline completions, a chat panel that knows your codebase, and an agent mode that can make changes across multiple files. It connects to several underlying models (from Anthropic, OpenAI, and others), so you choose which one answers.

Strengths

• Familiar VS Code experience with extensions and keybindings carried over.
• Codebase-aware chat and editing — it indexes your project so answers reference your actual code.
• Fast inline autocomplete that predicts multi-line and multi-file edits.
• Agent mode can plan and apply changes across files, then run commands.
• Model choice: pick a different underlying model to match the task or budget.

Trade-offs

• Subscription cost on top of model usage, with tiered limits on the heavier features.
• Suggestions can be wrong or out of context; you still review every change.
• Heavy indexing and AI features can feel sluggish on very large repos or weaker machines.
• Being a separate editor, it lags slightly behind upstream VS Code releases.
• Autocomplete can be distracting if you prefer to write code yourself.

Best for

Developers who want AI deeply integrated into a graphical editor — fast inline edits, codebase-aware chat, and agent-driven multi-file changes without leaving the IDE.

Vibe coding fit

Cursor suits vibe coding for people who prefer a visual editor over a terminal: you can describe a change in chat, watch it edit the relevant files, and accept or reject diffs inline. The codebase indexing means you can refer to "the auth flow" or "this component" and it usually finds the right place. Concrete tip: add a project rules file (e.g. .cursor/rules) describing your stack, conventions, and any "don't do this" constraints — Cursor feeds it into every request, so the agent stops re-introducing patterns you've already rejected.