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AI-Assisted Coding with Claude and Cursor

Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Advanced content levelAdvanced

Getting started with modern software development

What you’ll learn and how you can apply it

  • Write effective prompts that leverage Claude’s reasoning capabilities for code generation and analysis
  • Navigate and use Cursor’s core AI-powered features, including multimodel support and Composer mode
  • Generate, refactor, and debug code using AI assistance, with appropriate skepticism
  • Create unit tests and documentation with AI while maintaining code quality

Course description

Leverage Claude AI and Cursor IDE to write better code faster. Software developer and author Andrew Stellman shares prompt engineering techniques that are specifically designed for Claude’s reasoning capabilities, and shows you around Cursor’s AI-integrated development environment. Through focused exercises, you’ll discover how Claude’s contextual understanding and Cursor’s multimodel support can significantly enhance development workflows.

You’ll understand key Cursor features such as Composer mode for refactoring and codebase-wide context understanding. You’ll also practice generating code, writing tests, improving documentation, and using AI for debugging, while also learning to critically evaluate AI suggestions. By the end of the course, you should possess the practical expertise to integrate these AI tools into your daily development practices and code more efficiently.

This live event is for you because...

  • You’re a Java or C# developer (or skilled in another language and comfortable with Java/C# examples).
  • You want to explore practical AI tools for development tasks.
  • You want to learn Claude’s capabilities compared to other AI assistants.
  • You want to try Cursor’s IDE features for AI-assisted coding.

Prerequisites

  • Cursor IDE installed on your computer (free version works for all exercises)
  • Create a free Claude account for comparison exercises
  • Java JDK or .NET SDK installed for running code examples
  • Experience with Java or C# (examples will be in Java and C#)
  • Basic understanding of unit testing

Recommended preparation:

  • Download the course repository (GitHub link to be provided)

Recommended follow-up:

Schedule

The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.

Prompt engineering with Claude (60 minutes)

  • Presentation: Claude’s reasoning and context understanding; comparison with GPT-4 and other models; how Claude processes code differently; leveraging Claude’s analytical capabilities; practical Claude prompting techniques; multistep reasoning; context preservation strategies
  • Hands-on exercises: Basic prompting with Claude—analyze complex code; use Claude to refactor and document code
  • Q&A
  • Break

Coding with Cursor (60 minutes)

  • Presentation: Introduction to Cursor IDE; Cursor’s multimodel approach (Claude, GPT-4, etc.); understanding its features; when to use Claude versus GPT-4 in Cursor; debugging with AI assistance; evaluating AI-generated code
  • Demonstration: Composer mode for larger changes; terminal integration; model switching for different tasks
  • Hands-on exercises: Build a simple project with Cursor and Claude; generate classes with context; use Composer for refactoring; generate and run tests
  • Q&A

Your Instructor

  • Andrew Stellman

    Andrew Stellman is a full-time software developer and team lead who’s passionate about writing great code. He’s the author of many books and reports published by O’Reilly, including Beautiful Teams, Learning Agile, and five editions of Head First C#. Andrew has been writing books and training people on software development, agile, project management, and other technical topics for over 20 years.

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Skill covered

Generative AI