Sharpwork by Chris Fildes

Course Review: Mastering Cursor: From Setup to Real Projects (Coursera)

Chris Fildes · · 2 min read

Course: Mastering Cursor: From Setup to Real Projects

I recently finished Mastering Cursor: From Setup to Real Projects as part of my effort to find and share helpful AI courses for software engineers.

After taking a course on GitHub Copilot in VS Code, I found this to be a great next step. The Copilot course focused on AI-assisted coding in the editor, but this one goes deeper into agent-driven development. It shows how AI can help with the whole software delivery process, from planning and building to testing and documentation.

The course has seven modules. It starts with Cursor basics and prompt engineering, then moves on to advanced features like Skills, MCP, Subagents, Hooks, and Cloud Agents.

What I Got Out of It

One of the first things I liked was picking up useful Cursor shortcuts and workflows that can make daily work easier. I also discovered new features, especially for generating documentation and automating workflows.

I also liked that many of the examples were implemented in JavaScript. While that's not my primary language, it makes the course accessible to a wider audience and ensures the concepts apply regardless of technology stack.

The highlight for me was the Currency Converter case study. Instead of just showing single features, it demonstrated how an agent can be involved throughout the whole development process:

  • Creating a development plan
  • Generating the initial application
  • Implementing features
  • Refactoring code
  • Writing tests
  • Producing documentation

This matches the trend of spec-driven development, where requirements and plans guide the work and AI acts as a collaborator throughout.

I especially liked how the course focused on using Ask Mode to review work, question decisions, and refactor code before moving on. This step-by-step approach felt realistic and similar to how experienced engineers work.

Agent Skills Were the Highlight

For me, the most valuable part of the course was its focus on Agent Skills.

I’m now looking into Agent Skills more deeply, both for architecture and for building repeatable workflows. Skills can do more than just generate code. They help keep architecture consistent, enforce standards, make common tasks easier, and let teams share knowledge through reusable workflows.

I plan to write more about this soon, so it was helpful to see real examples of how Cursor handles Agent Skills.

Prompt Engineering

The course also gives helpful tips on prompt engineering. Even though the advice is for Cursor, it works just as well for GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools. Knowing how to give better context and structure requests is becoming an important skill for engineers, no matter which tool you use.

Overall

Overall, I recommend this course to any software engineer who wants a practical introduction to Cursor.

It’s a fast way to get started with Cursor. More importantly, it’s a great introduction to new ideas like agent-driven workflows, spec-driven development, and reusable AI skills.

Even if you end up using a different AI coding assistant, the ideas about workflow design, context management, prompt engineering, planning, testing, and documentation are useful for any AI tool.

For me, the main value wasn’t learning a new editor. It was seeing a real example of how AI agents can fit into a repeatable software engineering workflow.