Best practices for coding with agents
Jan 9, 2026Lee Robinson

Summary
This post details best practices for using Cursor's coding agents, focusing on planning, context management, and extending agent capabilities. It introduces 'Plan Mode' for structured agent execution, strategies for managing conversation context (e.g., using `@Chats`), and methods for extending agent behavior through 'Rules' (static context) and 'Skills' (dynamic capabilities). An example of a long-running agent loop using hooks is provided. The post also covers using images for design-to-code and visual debugging, and outlines test-driven development workflows with agents.