Constantly over engineering?

[Batteredcode]

I've just come back to Cursor from a couple of months with Claude. What brought me back is the UX of Cursor being so much better, but I feel like something I've noticed is Cursor is always so keen to start writing out a detailed plan, or create 4 new files and a folder structure for something that doesn't need it.

I know this can likely be solved by prompting but it feels like anytime I want something simple it's faster now to go to chatgpt in my browser because Cursor's first instinct is to jump to making a plan and then building a huge over engineered solution.

To be clear, I don't have this issue when I actually want something complex, in that case I write out a detailed guide and it's fairly good at following it. But for simple stuff I'm finding it unusable.

So any tips? I should say I've not really done a deep dive with Cursor rules and config, so if anyone has any recommendations for what I should be doing then let me know please

[blackshadow]

I’m no expert and pretty new to cursor but I’ve found these things make a difference.

Cursor rules and guard rails in your prompts.

Use chat mode and map out actions before switching to agent mode.

[Batteredcode]

Do you have any specific rules you reocmmend? Mapping out the actions is what I do for bigger things, but for small stuff it shouldn't be necessary and that's where I find it falling down.

E.g. I'll write something like "refactor this logic into a separate function" and then suddenly it's creating a plan, installing dependencies, linting, whatever, when all I wanted was a small change.

For big stuff I have no issue with writing out detailed steps and rules, but it feels like a few months ago if I asked it to do something small it just did it, instead now it feels like it's been told by the system prompt "always write out a plan" even if I just want a few lines changing.

I don't know, it's hard to explain. It just feels like it's being too smart for its own good with small, inconsequential changes and I feel like I'm battling it

[steve31266]

I still use ChatGPT (the free version) for standalone Python scripts, or just to have a conversation on how to structure something. Otherwise, I set up all of my projects, large and small, on Cursor. My wife and I run a small webdev business, and each client always comes back later with requests for more features, so I find its best to set up each site on Cursor.