15 Cursor Tips That Will 10x Your Vibe Coding Speed

Create a .cursorrules file in your project root. Cursor reads this file at the start of every session and applies the rules automatically. Use it to specify your tech stack, coding conventions, preferred patterns, and anything you would otherwise have to repeat every session.

# .cursorrules example
You are working on a Next.js 14 app using TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and Supabase.
- Use the App Router, not pages/
- Prefer server components unless client interactivity is needed
- All Tailwind classes should use our design tokens (see globals.css)
- Always handle loading and error states
- Write TypeScript types for all props and API responses

Cursor lets you create custom modes (like "Explain", "Review", "Refactor") with pre-set system prompts. Set up a "Security Review" mode that automatically checks for vulnerabilities, or a "Simplify" mode that refactors for readability.

Cursor Notepads let you save prompt templates you use repeatedly — like your authentication pattern, your API response format, or your component structure. Add @notepad-name to any prompt to inject the template.

Cmd/Ctrl + I opens Composer, which can edit multiple files in one prompt. Use it instead of Chat for any task that touches more than one file. It shows you a diff before applying, so you can review changes.

Agent mode (available in Composer) lets Cursor autonomously run terminal commands, install packages, and iterate on code without manual approval at each step. Use it for: "set up Stripe payments", "add authentication with Supabase", "migrate all API routes to use the new data structure".

Before a complex change, ask "explain how X works in this codebase" before asking for the change. This surfaces the AI's understanding of your code and catches misunderstandings before they cause broken changes.

In any chat or composer prompt, type @filename to add that file to the AI's context. This is crucial when you want the AI to understand the relationship between files. Example: "@components/Nav.tsx @app/layout.tsx please make the nav match the layout structure".

Typing @codebase in your prompt tells Cursor to search the entire project for relevant context. Use it for questions like "@codebase how is authentication handled in this project?" — it will find the relevant files itself.

In the Cursor chat panel, you can pin files to always be included in context. Pin your main layout, your types file, and your API routes so the AI always knows the project structure.

Type @docs followed by a URL and Cursor will fetch and include that documentation in context. Essential when working with APIs: "@docs https://docs.stripe.com/api/payment_intents implement a payment intent".

Select any code block and press Cmd+K (Ctrl+K on Windows) to get an inline AI edit panel. This is faster than opening chat for small targeted changes. Great for: "refactor this to use async/await", "add error handling to this function", "simplify this conditional".

When you get an error in the terminal, there is a "Fix in terminal" button that sends the error directly to Cursor AI with full context. This is faster than copying and pasting error messages.

After building a feature, immediately ask Cursor: "Write tests for the function I just added". AI-generated tests catch AI-generated bugs. The combination is dramatically more reliable than either alone.

Cursor Composer saves checkpoints before applying changes. If a change broke something, click the checkpoint icon in the Composer history to restore the previous working state. Faster than git reset for quick iterations.

Tell Cursor exactly what you want back: "Rewrite this function, return only the function itself (no explanation), in TypeScript, using async/await". Explicit format instructions eliminate the back-and-forth of unwanted output.