Cursor and Claude Code for automations
AI-powered IDEs, autonomous agents, and command-line tools to automate your creative workflows.
~120 minutes • Updated in April 2026
⚡ Cursor — The most popular AI-powered code editor
O Cursor, developed by Anysphere (valued at $9.2 billion), is a VS Code fork with AI deeply integrated. It has become the editor of choice for developers and, increasingly, for creators who use vibe coding.
🏆 Cursor's Main Features
- ✅ Composer 2 — generates and edits code across multiple files simultaneously
- ✅ Background Agents — up to 8 parallel agents working on different tasks
- ✅ Plugin Marketplace — extensions specifically for AI
- ✅ JetBrains support — not just VS Code
- ✅ Tab autocomplete — smart code completion
- ✅ Contextual chat — AI understands the entire project, not just the current file
Background Agents: the differentiator
The Background Agents are Cursor’s most revolutionary feature. You can create up to 8 parallel agents, each working on a different task. While one builds the frontend, another can configure the database, and a third can write tests.
💰 Price
Cursor Pro: $20/month. Includes unlimited use of Composer, Background Agents, and premium models (Claude Sonnet, GPT-4o). There’s a free plan with lower limits to try it out.
🖥️ Claude Code — Anthropic's terminal agent
O Claude Code is a command-line tool created by Anthropic that works as an autonomous programming agent. Unlike visual IDEs, it runs in the terminal and is especially powerful for understanding and working with large, complex projects.
🧠 Why Claude Code is special
- ✅ Deep understanding of projects — analyzes entire repositories
- ✅ 4% of all public commits on GitHub — widely used by the community
- ✅ Terminal-based — runs in any environment, including remote servers
- ✅ Long context — processes hundreds of files simultaneously
- ✅ Command execution — can run scripts, tests, and builds
- ✅ Git Integration — creates commits, branches, and PRs
💡 Example Use Case for Creators
Imagine you have a folder with 100 videos and want to generate thumbnails, captions, and descriptions for all of them. With Claude Code, you can say: "Create a Python script that, for each video in the /videos folder, generates a thumbnail using the Midjourney API, extracts the transcript with Whisper, and creates a YouTube-optimized description." Claude Code writes the script, installs dependencies, and runs it.
🏄 Windsurf — Editing in "flow state"
O Windsurf (formerly Codeium) stands out for its agent Cascade, which maintains awareness of the entire project and offers editing in a "flow state"—the AI anticipates what you need and proactively makes suggestions.
🌊 What Makes Windsurf Stand Out
- ✅ Cascade Agent — agent with full awareness of the project
- ✅ Context awareness — automatically understands relationships between files
- ✅ "Flow state" editing — proactive suggestions based on context
- ✅ Clean interface — less visual clutter than Cursor
- ✅ Generous free plan to get started
🐙 GitHub Copilot — The Veteran
O GitHub Copilot was the first widely adopted AI coding assistant. Although it has lost ground to Cursor and Claude Code in advanced features, it remains widely used thanks to its native integration with VS Code and the GitHub ecosystem.
📌 When to Use Copilot
Copilot is a good choice if you already use VS Code and want code autocomplete without switching editors. For more complex projects or pure vibe coding, Cursor and Claude Code are better suited.
📊 When to Use Each Tool
| Scenario | Recommended tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Create a visual app from scratch | Lovable / Bolt.new | Visual interface, no coding required |
| Multi-file Project | Cursor (Composer) | Simultaneous editing of multiple files |
| Script automation | Claude Code | Terminal, direct execution, long context |
| Complex parallel tasks | Cursor (Background Agents) | 8 simultaneous agents |
| Understand a large existing project | Claude Code | In-depth codebase analysis |
| Autocomplete while writing | Copilot / Cursor | Editor integration, inline suggestions |
| Cloud deploy with everything ready | Replit Agent | 100% cloud, integrated deployment |
🛠️ Practice: Automating a content pipeline with Claude Code
We'll use Claude Code to create an automation that processes videos: extracts audio, generates a transcript, creates captions, and formats them for different platforms.
📝 Step 1: Install Claude Code
In the terminal, run: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code. Then, configure your Anthropic API key by following the on-screen instructions.
📝 Step 2: Describe the project
Start Claude Code in the project folder and describe: "Create a Python script that: 1) Takes a path to a video file, 2) Extracts the audio using ffmpeg, 3) Transcribes it with Whisper, 4) Generates captions in SRT format, 5) Creates transcript versions formatted for YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok."
📝 Step 3: Review and run
Claude Code will create the script, install the necessary dependencies, and offer to run it. Review the proposed actions and confirm. Test with a real video.
📝 Step 4: Iterate and expand
"Now add a module that generates 5 SEO-optimized title options using the Claude API. And create a summary file with the video's key points." Claude Code understands the project context and integrates the new features.
🛠️ Practice: Building a tool with Cursor
Now let’s use Cursor to build a visual tool: a thumbnail generator that suggests layouts, text, and colors based on the video title.
📝 Step 1: Open Cursor and Create the Project
In Cursor, press Ctrl+I to open Composer and describe: “Create a React application with Tailwind that works as a thumbnail generator. The user enters the video title, and the tool suggests 3 thumbnail layouts with different text, colors, and compositions. Use canvas to render the previews.”
📝 Step 2: Use Background Agents
Create 2 agents: one to refine the interface (colors, layout, responsiveness) and another to add export logic (download as PNG at different resolutions: 1280x720 for YouTube, 1080x1080 for Instagram).
📝 Step 3: Test and refine
Test with different titles, adjust colors and fonts via Composer, and add features: "Add an option to upload a background image and overlay the text. Include image filters (blur, darken, saturate)."
✅ Lesson checklist
- ☐ Install Cursor and explore Composer
- ☐ Install Claude Code in the terminal
- ☐ Create the video processing pipeline with Claude Code
- ☐ Build the thumbnail generator with Cursor
- ☐ Test Background Agents in Cursor
- ☐ Explore Windsurf and compare it with Cursor
- ☐ Identify 2 automations that would benefit your content workflow