I’ll keep this brief, since you’ve probably already experimented with Cursor or picked up impressions from other blogs.
Who am I: A Senior Frontend Web Engineer with full-stack and AI experience, and founding experience
What was the purpose: To build a couple of mobile apps based on ideas I had in mind.
Term: 6 months
I will explain this blog in below parts:
Why this blog exists
Cursor + Flutter setup
Where Cursor shines for Flutter
Where Cursor struggles
Long-term behavior changes
Cursor vs “plain IDE + brain”
Performance & cost over time
Best practices
What I’d change if I started today
Final verdict (No Hype)
Why this blog exists
When Cursor first launched, I used it primarily for web development — not limited to front-end work. At some point, I decided to build something I had in mind, and Flutter was the right choice.
Initially, I tried to learn everything. After a couple of weeks, I realised something familiar: frameworks like Flutter aren’t really about learning everything upfront. They’re about understanding a few key concepts and learning the rest by building — the same way I learned React and other JavaScript frameworks after being well-versed in Angular.
What I wanted to document here is what changes when Cursor becomes part of your daily Flutter workflow — not just what it can do, but where it helps, where it misleads, and how it subtly affects the way you think as a Flutter developer.
This is not a tutorial or a sales pitch. It’s a long-term usage report from production-style work, written for people who already know Flutter and are wondering whether Cursor is worth sticking with.
My Cursor + Flutter setup
My setup is fairly standard, which I think makes these observations more relatable.
I use Cursor as my primary IDE for Flutter development, replacing VS Code entirely. Flutter runs on the stable channel, with the Dart SDK aligned accordingly. The projects range from medium-sized production apps to feature-heavy side projects — not toy demos.
In Cursor, I rely heavily on:
· Inline code suggestions for small changes
· The chat panel for debugging and refactoring discussions
· Repo-wide context when touching shared logic or architecture
· Explicit prompts rather than “accept-all” completions
I don’t let Cursor free-run the codebase. I treat it like a collaborator that needs direction, constraints, and review — especially around state management and UI architecture.
Where Cursor shines for Flutter
Cursor’s biggest strength in Flutter (anything) is momentum.
Flutter apps involve a lot of necessary repetition — widget trees, theming, models, mappers, and state-management boilerplate. Cursor dramatically reduces friction here. Writing fromJson, creating reusable widgets, or scaffolding Riverpod or Bloc patterns becomes fast enough that you stay focused on behavior rather than structure.
Refactoring is another strong area. Renaming widgets, extracting components, or moving logic out of UI layers feels smoother when Cursor understands surrounding context. It’s especially useful when you already know what you want to do and just want to execute quickly.
Debugging common Flutter issues is where Cursor often feels like a good senior developer sitting next to you:
· Explaining layout overflows
· Pointing out lifecycle mistakes
· Interpreting cryptic error messages
When the problem is well-understood and well-defined, Cursor is excellent.
Where Cursor struggles
Cursor struggles when Flutter stops being predictable.
Anything involving Flutter internals — InheritedWidget behavior, RenderObject quirks, slivers, or subtle rebuild issues — often triggers confident but shallow answers. The explanations sound correct, but they’re sometimes more textbook-like than reflective of real-world Flutter pain.
Cursor also hallucinates occasionally when dealing with larger issues — circular dependencies, deeply coupled code, or structural problems that require human judgement rather than pattern matching.
State management nuance is another weak spot. Cursor understands syntax, but not intent. It can suggest technically correct Riverpod or Bloc code that subtly breaks lifecycle guarantees or introduces unnecessary rebuilds.
Long-term behavior changes
This is the most interesting part — Cursor doesn’t just change how fast you code, it changes how you think.
Over time, I noticed:
· I think less about syntax and more about structure
· I prototype more freely, because cleanup is cheap
· I refactor earlier than I used to
But there are dangers.
It becomes easier to accept “good enough” naming. It’s tempting to let Cursor decide patterns you should consciously choose. And if you’re not careful, you start trusting confidence over correctness.
Cursor vs “plain IDE + brain”
This is the most interesting part — Cursor doesn’t just change how fast you code, it changes how you think.
Over time, I noticed:
· I think less about syntax and more about structure
· I prototype more freely, because cleanup is cheap
· I refactor earlier than I used to
But there are dangers.
It becomes easier to accept “good enough” naming. It’s tempting to let Cursor decide patterns you should consciously choose. And if you’re not careful, you start trusting confidence over correctness.
Performance & cost over time
As projects grow, context becomes expensive — both computationally and cognitively.
Large files, broad prompts, and repo-wide requests tend to feel slower and less precise. You quickly learn that smaller, well-scoped prompts perform better than “fix everything” instructions.
From a cost perspective, Cursor is worth it if Flutter is a core part of your work. If Flutter is only occasional, it’s harder to justify. Cursor’s ROI is higher for JavaScript-heavy workflows than Flutter, but it still pays off when used intentionally.
Best practices
A few rules I now follow strictly:
· For bigger features, start with Plan mode and clearly explain what’s in your mind before moving to Agent mode
· In Plan or Agent mode, ask the LLM to question assumptions and list what it is assuming — review these carefully before continuing
· Ask Cursor to explain what is changing and why, and review every change critically
· Keep prompts scoped, but not too narrow — context matters
· Never accept UI changes without verifying via hot reload
· Be explicit about architecture and patterns; explain your thinking clearly
· Treat generated code as a draft, not a final solution
Cursor rewards clarity. Vague prompts produce vague code.
What I’d change if I started today
If I were starting again, I would:
· Write Cursor rules much earlier
· Be stricter about state-management boundaries
· Avoid using Cursor for early architectural decisions
· Review generated code more aggressively in the first few weeks
The earlier you set boundaries, the better Cursor behaves over time.
Final verdict (No hype)
Cursor didn’t make me a better Flutter developer.
But it made a good Flutter developer faster — and a careless one riskier at a fast pace.
Used with intention, Cursor is a powerful productivity amplifier. Used blindly, it introduces subtle debt that only surfaces later. It’s not magic, and it’s not dangerous — but it absolutely reflects the discipline of the developer using it.
If you already know Flutter well, Cursor is worth it.
If you’re still learning Flutter fundamentals, learn those first — then bring Cursor in.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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