I’m using Cursor as my main IDE for full-stack projects (frontend + backend + database), and I’d love some guidance on which settings you recommend so I don’t burn too many tokens, while still getting high-quality results.
Specifically, could you please share:
-
Recommended model & settings for full-stack work
-
Which model(s) should I use by default for:
-
Day-to-day coding (Composer / Ctrl+L)
-
Big refactors / architecture changes
-
Chat / planning / code reviews
-
-
Any suggested values for things like max tokens, context size, and temperature for large repositories?
-
-
How to reduce token usage without losing context
-
Best practices for:
-
Organizing projects and chats so the model doesn’t need to read the whole repo every time
-
When to start a new chat vs continue an old one
-
How to use repo indexing / project context efficiently
-
Which features I can safely disable (for example: web search, long auto-fixes, etc.) if I want to save tokens.
-
-
-
Tips, tricks, or recommended workflow changes
-
Any “tricks” or lesser-known features that full-stack developers should enable or change in settings
-
How you recommend handling:
-
Mono-repos or larger codebases
-
Environment files, generated code, or logs so they don’t pollute the context
-
-
Anything else I should change in my workflow to get better results with fewer tokens.
-
If you have a sample configuration or screenshot of ideal settings for a typical full-stack project, that would be super helpful as well.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions or best practices you can share!