Force Sonnet 3.5 into `Explanatory` mode

Feature Requests
1

Former Claude web app user. I used to be able to have very in depth conversations with Claude about concepts I was trying to grasp. I haven’t really been able to recreate that experience with Cursor. Everything is too concise. Very surface level. No use of analogy. I’ve tried to recreate the web app experience through explicit prompting: “Do a deep dive on this topic”, “Pretend you’re a professor giving a lecture on this topic”, etc. with no success.

I can see how this would be ideal when expecting code output, so I can’t fault the Cursor team for defaulting to concise mode. But as we all know, programming is also the decision to be a lifelong learner. I would love to have the ability to have in depth conversions about concepts I’m trying to grok, without having to leave my editor, and within the full context of my codebase.

At the very least I would love to have the explanatory option available through the API.

1 Like
2

I totally get wanting those deeper, more explanatory conversations - especially coming from the Claude web app. While Cursor is currently optimized for concise code-focused responses, we actually have something in the works around this exact feedback

For now, you can get somewhat more detailed responses by:

  1. Using @Docs to include relevant documentation context
  2. Opening the Composer (Cmd/Ctrl+I) which has a larger context window
  3. Using @Codebase to reference your full codebase for broader discussions

But stay tuned - we’re working on making the dedicated learning experience you’re looking for possible right in the editor