Cursor
The AI-first editor that changed the way we code.
Olya's profile
- What sets it apart
- Cursor isn't a plugin bolted onto an editor: it's a VS Code fork rebuilt around AI, and it now also ships as a JetBrains plugin and a CLI. What sets it apart in practice is Tab, the completion that tries to guess your next edit rather than just your next line, and the fact that Anysphere started training its own models — Composer 2.5, released 18 May 2026 on the open Kimi K2.5 checkpoint — instead of merely reselling other people's.
- Strengths
- Speed is the point: Composer is built to answer within seconds on edits that span several files, and Tab removes more mechanical work than you notice until you switch it off. Around it sits a full ecosystem — project rules, skills, MCP servers, Bugbot for code review, agents running on cloud VMs while your editor is closed. The free tier genuinely exists, and privacy mode, which a team admin can enforce, keeps your code out of training.
- When to use it
- It earns its place on real, already-structured codebases, where you need to understand context before touching anything: refactors that cut across many files, migrations, tests written on top of existing code. It also suits anyone coming from VS Code who doesn't want to relearn a thing, since extensions and shortcuts carry over. The individual plan is $20 a month — the maths works if you use it daily.
- When to avoid it
- For occasional work the subscription is hard to justify: the free tier is deliberately tight and you hit the limits quickly. Teams with strict rules about where their code ends up should read the terms first rather than later, and anyone living inside a JetBrains IDE will find the plugin less mature than the native app. And the old point stands: the agent writes fast, but responsibility for what ships isn't something you can delegate.