Two editors, one look ☕

By now you've got VS Code and Cursor installed. Before we dive into code, let's take a quick tour so you don't feel lost. Grab a coffee. I've got them side by side, VS Code on the left, Cursor on the right, and it's pretty much identical software: same panels, same settings.

First, let's make them look the same. They might start on different themes:

1. Press F1 and type color theme (look for Preferences: Color Theme).

2. Scroll through and pick what you like. I'll use Dark Modern for now so both match.

Now they look identical. You can switch between them without even realizing... it actually happens to me sometimes.

Inline AI: Ctrl+I and Ctrl+K

These editors come with a lot of AI built in, and it's genuinely helpful. To generate code right where your cursor is:

• In VS Code it's Ctrl+I.

• In Cursor it's Ctrl+K.

Drop in a prompt, something like:

generate pyRevit code for 2025, get all walls, read wall layer materials, write in comments separated by a comma

Send it in both. You'll notice Cursor streams the code line by line, while VS Code thinks for a second and then dumps it all at once (a bit annoying, because sometimes you think it froze). The results are often different each run, and that's fine. It's super useful, especially as a beginner. Stuck getting a folder path? Just Ctrl+K, "get me the path of my .extension folder", and it writes something that usually works.

⚠️ Watch out: the AI also hallucinates sometimes, so check what you accept. It won't always be perfect, but it gets you moving.

🖼️ [IMAGE: side-by-side of VS Code (Ctrl+I) and Cursor (Ctrl+K) generating from the same prompt, Cursor streaming line by line, VS Code dumping all at once.]

The command palette (learn this one) 🎯

This is the thing that lets you do almost everything from the keyboard. Open it with Ctrl+P, or F1. In VS Code, F1 then Help: Keyboard Shortcuts Reference opens a printable cheat sheet. Print it, grab a highlighter, and learn a few at a time.

Here's what the prefixes do:

• Just type: search files across your whole project (Ctrl+P).

• : go to a line and column, like :87 for line 87 (Ctrl+G). Handy when an error points to a line.

• @ list the symbols in the current file: variables, functions, classes (Ctrl+Shift+O). Add a colon, @:, to group them by type.

• # search symbols across the whole project, jump straight to a function in any file.

• % search for text across files, when you know the exact words you're looking for.

• F1 show and run commands: settings, themes, zoom, anything.

🖼️ [IMAGE: a clean command-palette cheat-sheet card. One row per prefix: (type) = files, : = line, @ = file symbols, @: = grouped by type, # = project symbols, % = text, F1 = commands. Make it scannable in two seconds.]

Two settings worth turning on now

While we're in the command palette (F1), set these two:

1. Auto Save: search "save", set Auto Save to afterDelay, and the delay to 1000.

2. Mouse wheel zoom: turn it on so you can hold Ctrl and scroll to zoom in and out. For me this is a must. I constantly zoom out to look around, then zoom back in.

A few shortcuts I'll keep calling out

I'm not going to dump every shortcut on you (I once made a half-hour video on it, way too much). I'll call them out as we go. Two quick ones:

• F2 rename. It renames the thing everywhere it should, in context.

• F12 go to definition. Jumps to where an object is defined.

Make it yours

The editor is personal, so set it up how you like. I'll leave my full extensions list and settings below. Two I like:

• JetBrains Icons (an icon theme, the PyCharm look). Install it in both editors.

• Islands theme from JetBrains, my favorite. Use it if you want to match me, or pick your own.

Need to change something later? Just ask the agent. For example, in style.py: "make the class keyword pink instead of blue." Mention whether it's a Cursor or VS Code setting, because the agent can get confused about which one it's editing. It can even copy your VS Code settings over to Cursor. It can do a lot, so whenever you want to tweak something, just ask.

💡 Tip: want my exact setup? Press Ctrl+P and type settings json to open that file. Copy mine from below, or build your own. What matters is that you know how to navigate.

Now it's time to code

That's the tour. Your editors are set up and you know your way around. The rest I'll explain as we go. See you in the next one.