Mike Kerzhner

Cursor is one of the original AI code editors (2023 was a long time ago!) and has stood the test of time. It's a VS Code fork, which was key for me. I lean on @VS Code extensions and custom shortcuts. I was able to keep all of them (there is a migration assistant) when moving over to Cursor.

Cursor is very much an editor for looking at code as opposed to a vibe coding tool like @v0 by Vercel. My typical modes of using cursor are:

1. Describe a feature or a bug using Agent mode in the right sidebar.

2. Review diff + use AI autocomplete in editor.

I review every line of code an agent outputs. And I find myself editing code quite a bit. The agent still outputs code that is too verbose and, sometimes, not maintainable.

The price is nice too. $20/month is very reasonable.

I find 3 issues with the Auto model mode (as opposed to selecting a specific model):

1. It can be very verbose. This is where @Claude Code is much better.

2. Fails on complex problems. I end up selecting gpt-5 manually for these.

3. Kind of slow. @opencode with Grok Code seems at least 10x faster for simple prompts.

Also, I don't love using a dated fork of VS Code. I have been considering switching to VS Code + @Github Copilot extension since then I would be on the latest, vanilla VS Code.

Finally, Cursor also asks to be updated almost every day, which requires a restart. I like being on the latest software. But the restarts are very annoying. I run dev servers in the in-editor terminal. So I end up needing to restart the dev server every time I restart the editor.

I still use Claude Code quite a bit in a Cursor built-in terminal actually. But it's hard to beat all the editor integrations Cursor includes. Claude Code has just option+cmd+k.

I kicked the tires on OpenCode and really liked it. OpenCode is a terminal agent. So I didn't stick with it.

I used Windsurf for a while, and Windsurf felt like a magical upgrade over Cursor. Over time, it felt like Cursor caught up and then passed Windsurf. Honestly though, I haven't tried Windsurf in a while. Maybe it has advantages over Cursor again?

AI autocomplete is the original feature of Cursor and is very helpful. Saves a ton of typing. If I am in coding mode (as opposed to prompting mode), I'll often write a comment documenting a function. Autocomplete then spits out the function.

I also jump between languages. Honestly, it's pretty nice to rely on autocomplete instead of looking up syntax I forgot.

Hasn't been an issue for me. And I am on a somewhat dated machine (Apple M2 Pro).

This has gotten way better over time. I find that it's still key to include AGENTS.md for the project. But you can use Cursor to help generate that.

Take the above with a grain of salt. I use Cursor with very common languages and frameworks (Ruby on Rails, NextJS, Python). I have heard that Cursor struggles with more boutique languages and projects.