3-7 Using Cursor for Code Review

This article is part of our Cursor workflow series for engineers.

In our previous articles, we covered how Cursor can help generate commit messages and PR descriptions. Now let's explore how it can make code reviews more effective and constructive.

Setting Up Cursor for Code Review

First, pull your teammate's PR to your local machine and switch to their branch. This gives you the full context of their changes, not just the GitHub diff view.

Once you're on the PR branch, you can use Cursor's @Git command to access the commit history and diff information. This lets you review specific commits or see all changes between the PR branch and your main branch.

But here's the key: Cursor becomes most valuable when you give it context about how your team writes code.

Adding Your Team's Style Guide

The most effective code reviews happen when everyone knows the standards. Popular style guides like Airbnb's JavaScript Style Guide (with over 100k GitHub stars) or Google's multi-language style guides provide this foundation.

To integrate your style guide with Cursor:

1. Go to Cursor's Features and find the "Docs" functionality
2. Add your team's style guide documents
3. During review, reference these guides directly with prompts like "Review this PR using the JavaScript Style Guide"

Cursor will analyze the code against your style guide and suggest improvements, ensuring the PR maintains consistency with your codebase.

Reviewing Specific Components

You don't have to review entire PRs at once. Cursor works well for targeted reviews of individual files or code sections. For example, you can reference a specific React component file and ask Cursor to review it against React best practices.

This approach is particularly useful when reviewing complex components that deserve focused attention.

Making Reviews More Constructive

Here's something that happens to every developer: you spot the same mistake your teammate made last week, and you feel frustrated. Your first instinct might be to write something like:

"This code is terrible, completely unreadable. You need to extract these magic numbers like I told you before. Why aren't you listening???"

Don't send that comment. Instead, paste it into Cursor with this prompt: "Please rewrite this code review comment to be more friendly, constructive, and professional."

Cursor will rewrite your comment to focus on the code, not the person. This keeps reviews rational, constructive, and focused on improvement rather than blame.

The Long-Term Impact

Using Cursor for code reviews does more than catch bugs or style issues. It helps establish consistent review practices across your team. New team members learn what to look for, senior developers ensure comprehensive coverage, and everyone communicates more professionally.

The goal isn't to replace human judgment but to augment it with consistent, thorough analysis that considers your team's specific standards and practices.

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