AI Coding Best Practices

AI-assisted coding tools like Cursor can dramatically speed up your development workflow. Here are some best practices.

Writing Good Prompts

Be Specific

Bad: "Make a dashboard"

Good: "Create a user dashboard page at /dashboard that shows:

• User profile card with avatar and name
• Subscription status (free/pro)
• Recent activity list (last 5 items)
• A button to upgrade to pro plan"

Include Context

• Mention relevant files
• Reference existing patterns
• Specify technologies to use

Ask for What You Need

• "Use Zod for validation"
• "Include loading and error states"
• "Follow the existing component patterns"

Code Review

Always review AI-generated code for:

1. Security issues: SQL injection, XSS, etc.
2. Performance: Unnecessary re-renders, N+1 queries
3. Best practices: Proper error handling, types

Iterating

Start simple and iterate:

1. Get basic functionality working
2. Add error handling
3. Improve UX with loading states
4. Add tests

Happy coding with AI!