Thanks for the advice!
Honestly, I still want to stick with auto mode because, like I mentioned, I’m trying to minimize mental overhead. I also agree with not explicitly attaching context to the AI - both for saving tokens and for getting smarter results from the model.
But here’s what I’m wondering about your suggestion: Is Cursor’s auto mode + max mode combo actually smart enough to handle complex workflows? For example, imagine I’m working on a project where I need the AI to first dig through a massive .log file to identify bugs, then clearly plan out how to fix the code efficiently while explaining everything to me like a senior architect would (maybe this should trigger plan mode automatically?).
To get the best overall efficiency, it seems like this shouldn’t rely on just one model - different parts of the task probably need different context inputs. Can Cursor handle this kind of orchestration intelligently and get closer to true “vibe coding”? Or do I still need to manually manage which mode does what?
(This also reminds me of Roo Code’s Orchestrator mode, but honestly, the way it jumps across different chat sessions makes the whole workflow pretty hard to follow and unreadable, let alone it need complicated setting for each sub-mode.)
Bottom line: what I’m really after is EFFICIENCY - not just quick responses, but high-quality output and fast time-to-solution. And ideally, I shouldn’t have to babysit the agent or worry about which mode to use - I just want to focus on my actual work and let the AI figure out the rest.
Oh, and one more thing: there are still tons of complaints about Cursor’s pricing, like this thread pointing out that the $20 Pro plan can run out in less than a week for heavy users. Actually, one of the reasons I left Cursor back in April was because I felt uncertain about the actual costs despite wanting the best UX(I am not sure if the index and chunk makes the aI feedback dummy , or unrobust across different models). So now I’m willing to pay more (I can budget up to $1000/month for voice-based vibe coding within cursor of avg 6 hours coding(with related discussion) per day) to ease this concern. And sometimes I also want Cursor AI to solve some system issue or give me some insights based on a pdf paper locally or online , which not related to a speicifc workspace.
Anyway, I really hope the current Cursor is efficient enough that I don’t need to worry about all these non-business details anymore - just TAKE MY MONEY AND SAVE MY TIME!