Managing Code Complexity and Documentation in AI-Assisted Development with Cursor

Posted by u/ButterscotchWeak11924 months agoCurated from Reddit

Project Information

Project Type
Medium
Type of Project
AI-assisted application development
Problem Type
Code comprehension and documentation

Tags

code-complexity
ai-assisted-development
documentation
code-visualization
technical-debt
knowledge-management
cursor-ai
code-architecture

AI Models Mentioned

Cursor AI
Code generation and assistance

Summary

A developer describes losing track of their codebase structure after rapid development using Cursor AI for code generation. They seek advice on understanding code flow, visualizing application structure, and maintaining better control over AI-assisted development while still learning from the process.

Prompt

Generate a comprehensive documentation structure for my application that includes:
1. A visualization or description of the data flow between different components
2. Mapping of UI elements to their corresponding function calls
3. Key data structures and their relationships
4. Main function dependencies and call hierarchies

The documentation should help developers understand:
- What happens when specific UI elements are interacted with
- How data flows through the system
- Which functions are responsible for specific features
- Where key data structures are used and modified

Best Practices

Regular Code Documentation

critical

Maintain comprehensive documentation of code structure and flow even when using AI assistance

Incremental Architecture Review

important

Regularly review and document architectural decisions and data flow

Code Flow Documentation

important

Document user interaction flows and their corresponding function calls

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Avoid Blind AI-Generated Code Acceptance

critical

Don't implement AI-generated code without understanding its structure and purpose

Prevent Undocumented Rapid Changes

important

Avoid rapid implementation of features without proper documentation and understanding

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