Navigation

Navigation is the skill of moving through a codebase without losing the thread. Cursor’s strength is speed: the fast line between the thought and the file. But speed is only useful when it follows a route that makes sense.

Learn the entry points first. The route from a request to the code that handles it — from button to handler, from route to render — is the map you will redraw a hundred times. Once the main paths are familiar, everything else is a neighborhood off the main street.

Use the tools that keep you oriented: search, symbol jumps, and the ability to ask where a thing is defined. Each of these answers a navigation question in one step. The goal is to spend effort on the change, not on finding the file.

Good navigation leaves a trace. When you move through code, keep the destination in mind, and let the path you took inform the next one. Repositories teach their routes to those who walk them repeatedly.