Introduction

Elevate your VS Code development experience with Cursor’s AI-driven autocompletion. In this lesson, you’ll discover how Cursor seamlessly integrates into your IDE, offering context-aware suggestions and interactive assistance to help you code more efficiently.

Throughout this tutorial, we’ll cover:

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:

• Configure Cursor Composer and tailor its settings
• Leverage automatic imports to maintain clean code
• Apply prompt engineering techniques for optimal suggestions
• Use Ask Mode to troubleshoot and refine your code

1. Intelligent Code Suggestions

Cursor analyzes your open files and project context to provide accurate, relevant completions. As you type, Cursor offers:

• Real-time autocompletion for functions, classes, and variables
• Inline documentation and type hints
• Adaptive learning based on your coding patterns

// Example: Efficient React component skeleton
import React from 'react';

const MyComponent = ({ title, items }) => {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{title}</h1>
      <ul>
        {items.map((item) => (
          <li key={item.id}>{item.label}</li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    </div>
  );
};

export default MyComponent;

2. Getting Started with Composer

Composer is Cursor’s configuration hub, where you can:

1. Install the Cursor extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace
2. Open the Composer panel (View > Command Palette > Cursor: Open Composer)
3. Adjust settings such as model selection, response length, and suggestion triggers

3. Automatic Imports & Customizable Settings

Cursor can detect missing imports and insert them automatically:

# Before Cursor
def fetch_user(id):
    response = requests.get(f"https://api.example.com/users/{id}")
    return response.json()

# After Cursor suggests and adds:
import requests

You can fine-tune import behavior in Composer:

4. Essential Prompt Engineering

Fine-tune your prompts to get the best results:

• Be specific: Include function signatures or expected return types.
• Use context: Provide surrounding code snippets for better accuracy.
• Iterate quickly: Refine your prompt based on Cursor’s initial suggestions.

# Prompt example in Ask Mode
# “Generate a TypeScript interface for a REST response with fields: id, name, email.”

5. Using Ask Mode for Interactive Assistance

Ask Mode transforms your editor into an AI chat interface. Use it to:

• Debug errors by pasting stack traces
• Refactor code snippets on the fly
• Generate documentation or unit tests

Press Ctrl+Shift+P and select Cursor: Open Ask Mode to begin.

References

• Cursor Documentation
• Visual Studio Code
• Prompt Engineering Best Practices