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Research before building with plan mode1 / 2

2 min lesson

Research one change before Build

Research one complex change, resolve its open questions and review the plan before Build.

Step 1 of 2

Give Plan Mode one complex change with a result, boundary and non-goals. Let it inspect the codebase. Answer its clarifying questions, then open the files named in the plan. Mark assumptions and unresolved choices. Add the exact verification command and review the scope once more. Leave Build untouched until the plan matches the request and the code it inspected.

The prompt is the review

0:38 · narrated
Read this demo as text
  1. Okay, compose the request. The tight prompt names the change, scopes it to the file components/search, and fences the filter logic. The build can only be as big as that allows.
  2. Hit send. Planned as prose, built, done. No dangling question. And the files card stops at three.
  3. Three files, all inside the file components/search. And the file searchFilter.ts? Not one of them. The boundary you wrote is the boundary that shipped.
A tight prompt fences the build — three files inside components/search, filter logic untouched.

Practice next: Now run the walkthrough: write the bounded prompt and keep the build inside components/search.

Simulated Cursor 3.12 (macOS, light) — beta educational reconstruction, not the real product.