Step 2: Understanding Cursor's AI Suggestions & Interactions

Cursor deeply integrates AI into your coding workflow. Let's explore the primary ways you'll interact with its intelligent suggestions to boost your productivity.

Inline Completion (Tab)

As you type, Cursor offers context-aware code completions (often multi-line) directly in your editor as greyed-out "ghost text." Simply press Tab to accept the full suggestion. 

# User types:
def calculate_average(numbers):
    
# Cursor suggests (ghost text):
    if not numbers:
        return 0
    return sum(numbers) / len(numbers)

# Press Tab to accept

Slash Commands (/)

Type / anywhere in your code to access commands for generating, explaining, documenting, or transforming code. Each command is specialized for specific tasks. 

// User types / and selects:
/explain
// followed by selecting code to explain

// Or generating code with:
/generate
// followed by a description of what to create

AI Chat Interface (Cmd+L/Ctrl+L)

The AI chat panel provides a conversational interface for complex queries, explanations, and code generation. Use it when you need deeper context or multi-step help. 

User: How can I optimize this function for better performance?

AI: Based on your current implementation, here are 3 optimizations:
1. Cache the results to prevent recalculation
2. Use a more efficient algorithm (details...)
3. Refactor the nested loops into a single operation

Code Actions (Cmd+I/Ctrl+I)

Highlight code and use the keyboard shortcut to access contextual AI actions like explain, document, fix/improve, or test generation. 

// Select this React component
function UserProfile({ userId, showDetails = false }) {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null);
  
  useEffect(() => {
    fetchUser(userId).then(data => setUser(data));
  }, [userId]);
  
  // Press Cmd+I/Ctrl+I for actions like:
  // - Explain code
  // - Document function
  // - Generate tests
  // - Improve code
}

Fix Errors & Problems

When encountering errors, select the error message or problematic code and press Cmd+I/Ctrl+I. Choose "Fix" from the menu to get AI-powered solutions. 

// Error example
const users = getUsers();
console.log(users.length);
// TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of undefined

// 1. Select the error message or code
// 2. Press Cmd+I/Ctrl+I and select "Fix"
// 3. AI suggests:
const users = getUsers() || [];
console.log(users.length);
Proceed to Next Step: Handling Suggestions