How I am using AI Assisted Coding

AI code editors are becoming more popular, and I am trying to incorporate them into my worklfow. The keyword there is trying. It’s successful sometimes and definitely not in other times.

I’m currently using Cursor and Alex and pay for both. I use both for iOS and Swift projectsm, but Cursor is also used for web projects. Both these products get frequent updates, so these tips could be outdated by the time you see this.

Last updated: April 24, 2025

Things that work (the majority of the time)

• Adding more context. Linking a lot of files does allow for more context.
• Creating a full spec and telling it to implement it but to check in occassionally.
  • You still need to really spec out exactly what needs to happen and make sure there are no logic gaps.
• Giving as much context as you can think of
  • Make sure to include all the files you think are going to be necessary to implement the task that way it doesn’t make up initializers or function signatures 🙄

Things that don’t work (the majority of the time)

• Using a chat for a lot of different things
  • It’s easy to think that a long running chat will have all the context, but it will forget more things.
• Using it or brand new frameworks
  • If there aren’t a lot of articles or resources for the framework you’re trying to use on the internet, the chances of AI helping you with it are really low.

What I find AI really good at

• Docker files. I am clueless about Docker files, but it’s really good at helping me figure out what I need to change and what I need to do to get it working.
• Scripts. I’m pretty new to making scripts or doing anything with the command line. Since most of that has been written about, AI is actually really good at writing scripts that need to do a specific task.