My Cursor workflow:
1. I first use my brain to understand what I need and how I would solve it.
2. I read the codebase and find the places where I need to make changes - this also gives me an understanding of the effort: whether the llm can one-shot it or if I need to split it into smaller steps.
3. I tag related files (the most important ones, not all) and describe the feature I want - I type this myself. I tried switching to voice, but when i type, my brain thinks more and i like it : )
4. I always run it first in Plan mode with Sonnet 4.5.
5. If I like the plan, I execute it with:
• Opus 4.5 when the code change is small and I understand it fits into the 200k context window (its fast and reliable, but worse on large changes)
• GPT-5.2 Codex if the problem is hard - it follows commands a bit better without deviations, but it’s super slow (slow, good in following plan)
• Sonnet 4.5 when it’s a big change across many projects (fast, reliable enough for day to day tasks)
• When I need to design UI, I go to Google AI Studio (gemini 3 pro). Usually 2-3 shots are enough to get a design I like. Then I export it as a zip, paste it into my codebase, and ask Sonnet 4.5 to integrate it into the project. Works like a charm.
If i dont like the plan - do 1-4 again.
6. Once the feature is ready, I accept all changes right away and test it. If everything works fine, I briefly read the PR and merge it. If there are errors, I prompt the model to fix them - but at this point, I study the implementation more carefully and make sure I understand the changes.
• I noticed that if it works on the first try, it usually means the plan was followed well, so I don’t need to pay much attention to it.
• But if there’s a bug, there’s a high chance something went wrong, and I need to make sure there were no deviations from the plan.
I usually spend around $300-400 per month on this ($200 sub + credits).
Would be happy to hear your workflows. These days everything changes super fast, and its nice to hear what other people are doing. That's the motivation for that post.
