Cursor Build Loop

Quality-gated feature work: nothing ships on "it compiles" — every increment is built, reviewed, tested end to end, and fixed before the user hears "done."

Source of work

• A plan file exists (roadmap, refactor plan, or task list with - [ ] checkboxes — search the repo): work the first unchecked task. Tasks are ordered intentionally — never skip ahead. If the plan references spec docs, read only the sections relevant to the current task.
• No plan (or the request is outside it): build from the user's prompt. Restate it as a verifiable goal with 2–4 success criteria and confirm scope in one message before building.

The loop

Run per task (or per prompted feature). Do not advance until every step passes.

1. Build. Implement exactly what the task specifies. Simplest implementation that satisfies it, surgical changes, no speculative scope. Match existing project conventions.

2. Review. Run Cursor's /review on the changes. Fix all findings in scope — bugs, security issues, edge cases, performance, style in files you touched. If the project has a design system spec (design tokens file, DESIGN.md, theme config), check UI changes against it — no hardcoded colors, type, or spacing that bypass tokens. Note pre-existing issues in untouched code for the report instead of fixing silently. Re-run /review until clean. If a finding contradicts the task or spec, the spec wins — flag the disagreement.

3. Test end to end. Run the task's verification step (or the success criteria). Run the full test suite — everything that passed before must still pass. Add tests for new logic. Then exercise the feature as a user would: run the app, walk the real flow including empty, loading, and error states.