Cursor Chat vs Composer: Which One Should You Use?

As AI-assisted development becomes more common, coding tools are evolving into fully interactive environments that help developers think, plan, write, and refactor code. Cursor is one of the tools leading this shift - but if you’ve spent time in Cursor, you’ve probably noticed two modes that seem similar yet behave differently: Chat and Composer.

At first glance, both help you write code with AI. But they serve very different purposes, and misunderstanding the difference can lead to slow iteration cycles, confusing responses, or inconsistent code changes.

What Is Cursor Chat?

Cursor Chat works like a conversational assistant inside your code editor. You ask a question or give a prompt, Cursor responds, and optionally suggests code changes.

Use Cursor Chat when you:

• Want to understand something quickly (e.g., “What does this function do?”)
• Need debugging help
• Ask for small refactors (“Extract this into a hook”)
• Want to explore API options, patterns, or architecture decisions
• Need guidance on how to implement something

Example Prompts for Chat:

• “Explain how this recoil selector memoizes values.”
• “Rewrite this logic to avoid unnecessary re-renders.”
• “Suggest test cases for this service.”

Chat is great when you're thinking, learning, or clarifying.

What Is Cursor Composer?

Cursor Composer is where you ask Cursor to produce code - not just discuss it. Composer takes a more structured prompt like: “Generate a CRUD dashboard for this /customers table using Next.js, Tailwind, and Prisma. ”Then it builds code, files, and logic - often across multiple files - and shows diffs for approval.

Use Composer when you:

• Want to create new files
• Scaffold new features or modules
• Convert a Figma screen into React components
• Generate repetitive boilerplate code

Composer is optimized for:

• Code generation workflows
• Multi-file changes
• Initial implementations you will later refine manually

Strengths:

• Efficient for scaffolding and boilerplate
• Automatically applies changes across files
• Produces structured code output

Limitations:

• May produce code that needs cleanup
• Can hallucinate missing patterns or architecture assumptions if prompt is vague
• Not ideal for making nuanced edits to existing logic

Think of Composer as "AI code generation mode".

Cursor Chat vs Composer: comparison table

Where UI Bakery fits into this workflow

Cursor is great when you're already coding in your environment. But sometimes, you want to generate the app structure itself, not just modify one you’re already writing. This is where tools like UI Bakery’s AI App Generator complement Cursor, instead of replacing it.

While Composer focuses on generating code inside your project, UI Bakery focuses on generating functional applications with real data sources, and still gives you full access to the React code behind the UI.

So you get:

• Drag-and-drop UI construction + generated code
• Actual React components you can export and edit
• Ability to keep everything in your GitHub repo
• No lock-in as the code is transparent

This matters when:

• You want to scaffold dashboards, internal tools, CRUD interfaces, or client portals
• You need both UI and backend integration handled quickly
• You don’t want a black-box UI generator

A realistic workflow may look like:

1. Use UI Bakery to generate your React UI + data bindings.
2. Export code.
3. Open the repo in Cursor Composer to expand features.
4. Use Chat to debug, optimize, and refine.

These tools combine into a genuinely more productive development loop - without forcing you into proprietary code or rigid low-code abstractions.

Which should you use?

Final thoughts

Neither Chat nor Composer is “better” - they fit different phases of building software:

• Chat = thinking, learning, clarifying, and refining
• Composer = scaffolding and generating structured code
• UI Bakery = jump-starting apps with real UI + data + full React code control

The best workflow doesn’t choose one tool, it combines them.

If you’re already using Cursor and you want faster project setup, UI Bakery helps you start from a strong foundation. If you’re building something custom inside an existing repo, Cursor gives you speed and iteration power. The future of development is not replacing developers - it’s expanding what one developer can build.