Cursor Tutorial for Beginners from Cursor's Head of AI Education | Lee Robinson
Move beyond vibe coding to build AI apps properly using planning, test-driven development, agent workflows, and more.
Dear subscribers,
Today, I want to share a new episode with Lee Robinson.
Lee is the head of AI education at Cursor and a legend in his field. While most people are still vibe coding, Lee showed me how to build apps properly using planning, test-driven development, AI agent workflows, and more. This is a must-watch if you’re a beginner who wants to learn how to build with AI the right way.
Watch now on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
Lee and I talked about:
(00:00) How the way we build software is fundamentally changing
(03:49) Live demo: Building a music tracking app with Cursor
(5:17) The critical setup phase most people skip (tests, git, linting)
(16:03) Foreground vs background agents and when to use each
(27:34) How to create cursor rules that compound your workflows
(37:31) Why experienced engineers shouldn't fear AI tools
(42:19) Essential advice for PMs who want to learn technical skills
(44:48) How Cursor builds products without any PM
(47:18) The future of generalist engineers in an AI world
🎙️ Coming up next on Behind the Craft
AI Evaluations Explained: Step by Step with Real Examples | Aman Khan
How to Automate Your Work Using Claude Code | Alex Finn
Top 10 takeaways I learned from this episode
Ask AI to include tests in your prompt. Tests give the AI a self-verifying loop. Just include this line in your prompt or plan: “Add unit tests for business logic, e2e tests for core user journeys.”
Write detailed technical requirements upfront. Work with AI to create a technical plan upfront including requirements, design preferences, and preferred tech stack. You should also include instructions for AI to use tests and Git. Here’s the exact prompt that Lee used to create a plan for a music listening habits app:
Let’s build a web app to track music listening and report stats on top artists and songs.
Help me think through how to break this into iterative pieces and write a http://plan.md.
Requirements:
1. Add unit tests for business logic, e2e tests for core user journeys
2. Use git and pnpm, use descriptive commits
more below...