Guide
Is Cursor Only for Developers? A Better AI Interface for Anyone With Files
Anyone outgrowing ChatGPT tabs who wants file-grounded AI that remembers your rules across projects, semesters, jobs, and side work
Practical writing on using AI well
What worked, what failed, and what helped me move from pilot to production.
New posts ship on the blog; the weekly digest catches what you missed — one email, practical only.
Nathan Petralia
I have spent two decades leading digital and commercial programs across APAC. Today I build AI products and use agents daily across consulting, practice building, go-to-market, delivery governance, and operational leadership.
About me →Start here
New to the site? Pick one path — each opens a guide or series hub.
Series hub
External Memory Series: A Practical Guide to AI Session Continuity
Program leads and knowledge workers adopting file-based memory for AI-assisted work — start here for the series map
Series hub
One Agent, Many Workflows: What Cursor Customize Is For (Beyond Coding)
Anyone who uses AI across study, business, and personal work and wants one customized agent interface instead of a pile of chat tabs
Reading paths
Multi-part guides — start at the hub, then follow the series in order.
Reading path
Cursor Customize Series
Anyone who uses AI across study, business, and personal work and wants one customized agent interface instead of a pile of chat tabs
Reading path
Knowledge Work Engine Series
Leaders and operators designing a knowledge-work engine around agents
Reading path
Cursor Agent Harness Series
Practice leads governing Cursor Agent with harness discipline without microservice overhead
Reading path
External Memory Series
Program leads and knowledge workers adopting file-based memory for AI-assisted work — start here for the series map
Latest
New this week
Cursor Cloud Agent Hooks vs Local Hooks: Two Layers of the Same Harness
Best forOperators wiring Cursor Customize who need a clear split between cloud-side agent hooks and local IDE hooks without turning the repo into a microservice
Cloud agent hooks (beforeSubmitPrompt, afterAgentThought, subagentStart) run on Cursor's side. Local hooks (sessionStart, afterAgentResponse) run on your machine. Here is how I use both.
Continue reading →New this week
Cursor Conversation Search vs a Bridge File: Where Session Memory Should Live
Best forAnyone relying on Cursor chat search who still loses thread between sessions and wants a durable handoff file without rebuilding the whole vault
Cmd+K transcript search finds what was said. A Bridge SSOT file holds what still matters. Here is when to use each and why files win for handoff.
Continue reading →New this week
One Agent, Many Workflows: What Cursor Customize Is For (Beyond Coding)
Best forAnyone who uses AI across study, business, and personal work and wants one customized agent interface instead of a pile of chat tabs
Cursor Customize is how you shape one agent for brainstorming, consulting, blogging, shipping, and life admin - then hand off between phone and desk without restarting from zero.
Continue reading →New this week
Cursor Side Chats and Parallel Threads: How I Split Work Without Losing the Main Line
Best forAnyone running long Cursor agent sessions who needs quick tangents without losing the main task or re-explaining context on mobile
Cursor 3.11 side chats (/side, /btw) let you branch questions without polluting the main thread. Here is how I pair them with parallel agents and mobile handoff.
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Skills, Hooks, and Orchestration: Cursor Customize With an Obsidian Memory Loop
Best forReaders who already get work modes and want the Customize mechanics plus Obsidian/mobile handoff without a full wiring handbook
The deep dive on Cursor Customize mechanics that matter: skills, hooks, commands, subagents, MCPs - plus the Obsidian memory loop and mobile-to-desktop handoff.
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Cursor Customize for Local Develop and GitHub Shipping
Best forAnyone who occasionally ships code or config with AI and wants light review habits without a full developer handbook
A light Customize setup for directed local changes and GitHub shipping: review habits, small diffs, and handoffs - without turning this into another full harness handbook.
Continue reading →