cursor-known-pitfalls

# Cursor Known Pitfalls Common Cursor IDE pitfalls and their solutions. Organized by category: AI behavior, security, configuration, performance, and team collaboration. ## AI Feature Pitfalls ### Pitfall 1: Blindly Applying Composer Changes **Problem:** Clicking "Apply All" without reviewing diffs. Composer can generate code with wrong imports, hallucinated APIs, or logic errors. **Solution:** ``` 1. Click each file in the Changes panel to review its diff 2. Check imports: are they real packages in your project? 3. Check function calls: do the methods actually exist? 4. Run build after applying: npm run build 5. Run tests: npm test 6. Commit BEFORE running Composer (easy rollback with git checkout .) ``` ### Pitfall 2: Context Window Overflow **Problem:** Adding too many `@Files`, `@Folders`, and `@Codebase` references. The model silently drops information, leading to: - Ignoring your instructions - Repeating itself - Generating generic instead of project-specific code **Solution:** ``` - Use @Files (specific) over @Folders (broad) over @Codebase (broadest) - Limit to 3-5 file references per prompt - Start new chats for new topics - Remove stale context pills by clicking X ``` ### Pitfall 3: Continuing Stale Conversations **Problem:** Reusing a 20+ turn conversation for a new task. The conversation history fills context, leaving no room for your new request. **Solution:** `Cmd+N` to start a new chat for each distinct task. ### Pitfall 4: AI Generates Deprecated P...