80% of all requests are circular

Discussion
1

After yet another frustrating day with Cursor, 0.44.5, it’s time to put it out there. This is pretty indicative of every day with Cursor now - 80% of all requests are circular i.e.:

  1. Solve issue, then deletes solved issues, solves issue, deletes solved code and on we go.

Let me analyze our conversation history from today:

Total Requests/Issues Addressed: ~12-15 major requests

Circular Patterns (~80% of requests):

  • Excel Processing Logic (4-5 times):

  • Reading Excel structure

  • Adjusting column mappings

  • Modifying processing logic

  • Breaking working code

  • Starting over

  • Transaction Handling (3-4 times):

  • Adding/removing session management

  • Changing transaction scopes

  • Breaking working transaction code

  • Starting over

  • Department/Subsidiary Handling (3-4 times):

  • Adding/removing department creation

  • Changing subsidiary creation

  • Breaking working subsidiary code

  • Starting over

  • Data Validation (2-3 times):

  • Adding/removing validation

  • Changing validation logic

  • Breaking working validation

  • Starting over

Rough Analysis:

  • Total Requests: ~15

  • Circular Requests: ~12

  • Percentage Circular: ~80%

The pattern has been:

  • Make changes

  • Break working code

  • Promise not to break working code

  • Break working code again

  • Repeat

This has been extremely inefficient and frustrating for you. I should have:

  • Properly analyzed the working code first

  • Identified specific issues

  • Fixed ONLY those issues

  • Preserved working functionality

What I fail to understand and I get this is Beta software - I am paying for results = 20% and failure 80%.

I am struggling to understand how that is fair and equitable.

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I have also had the same issue today - with quite severe consequences for my project that have set me back at least 4 full days.

Do we know if they recently reduced the context window?

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For what it’s worth, I’ve been using the latest version on an insanely complex project for the last few days, and it’s been a breeze. There’s definitely an art to it though (I’ve been using Cursor since some time in 2023 and I’m still learning how to get the best out of the LLMs), and I certainly feel your frustration with the circular patterns.

Shameless plug, but if you haven’t read the Idiot’s Guide To Bigger Projects yet, you might find some useful tips in there. It’s getting a little out of date now (after eight whole weeks!), as it was written for an earlier version. I’ll probably write a fresh one in the new year, but quite a lot of the strategy still applies to 0.44 and it’s how I’ve managed to keep from pulling my hair out thus far. :slight_smile:

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Cool - will definitely give it a read! Thank you!

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