From Overwhelmed Lead to AI Orchestrator: Regaining Control of My Dev Life

The author describes a surge in work after his team started using Cursor. It helped junior engineers produce more, but it also gave senior engineers too many reviews. Stories went from once every two weeks to every day, pull‑request queues grew, and discussion threads multiplied, leading to an anxiety phase even though sprint numbers looked fine.

The author realized the issue was treating Cursor as just a tool instead of an assistant. He created four foundations: integrated servers, clear rules, reusable skills, and exact prompts. With Cursor acting as a window, he let it take on tasks, run tests, and analyze logs while he kept overall control, preventing burnout.

The story shows that we should guide AI, not let it guide us.