Brainstorming Mode

Ideas Feature Requests
1

Feature request for product/service

Cursor IDE

Describe the request

I would like Cursor to add a dedicated Brainstorming mode, separate from Plan mode.

Today, Plan mode is useful once the user already has a reasonably clear implementation direction. But when the problem is still ambiguous, Plan mode tends to move too quickly toward implementation: what files to change, what code to write, and how to execute the chosen approach.

What I am missing is a mode that helps me clarify the problem itself and make better design decisions before committing to an implementation plan.

For many engineering tasks, the hard part is not immediately “how do I implement this?” but rather:

  • What is the actual problem I am trying to solve?
  • Is this a product problem, a data model problem, an architecture problem, or just a local bug?
  • What are the possible ways to model this?
  • Should this be a new concept, a new field, a new enum value, a new abstraction, or just a change in behavior?
  • What are the trade-offs between the options?
  • Which option is most consistent with the existing architecture?
  • What are the risks, edge cases, and future consequences?
  • What should be solved now vs left for later?

Cursor’s current Plan mode sometimes asks questions, but they often feel like inputs required to complete a plan, rather than a real collaborative reasoning process. It asks the user to make decisions, but does not always help the user think through those decisions.

A Brainstorming mode should work more like an engineering thought partner. It should explore alternatives, challenge assumptions, compare trade-offs, and help converge toward a clear design direction.

The output should not necessarily be an implementation plan. It could instead be a concise design note / decision document containing:

  • the clarified problem
  • relevant constraints
  • options considered
  • pros and cons
  • recommended direction
  • open questions
  • scope boundaries
  • what should feed into Plan mode next

This would be similar in spirit to:

In short: Plan mode helps turn a decision into an implementation plan. Brainstorming mode should help the user make the right decision in the first place.

Operating System (if it applies)

MacOS

3

Just use ask mode with a prompt of what output you want, as you say like “clarify the problem itself and make better design decisions before committing to an implementation plan. act like an engineering thought partner. explore alternatives, challenge assumptions, compare trade-offs, and help converge toward a clear design direction”

Or put that in a skill/rule and apply when needed. Once done, switch to plan mode and say “put the bespoke solution into a plan”.

My personal opinion, no offence: Let’s not overengineer Cursor, it’s a pity we’re getting forced into this kindergarden Agent mode already. It’s more and more leaning towards a non-technical app for people that have no idea how to code but yet use an IDE. I think Cursor would be better off staying close to it’s VS Code roots for real devs and develop another app with agent mode, drag-and-drop editor and all these other non-technical solutions that a dev has no need for and is just getting blocked with performance issues and annoying popups.

6

No offence but your third paragraph is clearly off-topic here (even if I share your view on this one).

Going back to the meaningful part of your answer.
I am currently doing what I described in my feature request through plan mode. I use plan mode to have a discussion with the model, to discuss scope, commit strategy, PR splitting, deployment strategy etc .. and finally write a design doc/meta plan. Then I start a new thread in plan mode starting from this design doc to actually write the **implementation details.

Ask mode cannot do that for at least 2 reasons :

  • First, I always feel like in Ask Mode the models are dumber/lazier
  • Second, Ask Mode is more about you asking questions rather than the models asking you questions. while I am looking for something more interactive.

Repeating myself, I want something interactive, where the models are going to ask me as much questions as necessary to clarify the scope and the design and where they are going to challenge my choices and show me/discuss with me the pros and cons of alternative approaches. It can somewhat be done today with plan mode but I feel like it could be way better with something built-in.