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Computer Science > Software Engineering

arXiv:2511.04427 (cs)
[Submitted on 6 Nov 2025 (v1), last revised 26 Jan 2026 (this
version, v3)]

Title:Speed at the Cost of Quality: How Cursor AI Increases
Short-Term Velocity and Long-Term Complexity in Open-Source Projects

Authors:Hao He, Courtney Miller, Shyam Agarwal, Christian Kastner,
Bogdan Vasilescu
View a PDF of the paper titled Speed at the Cost of Quality: How
Cursor AI Increases Short-Term Velocity and Long-Term Complexity in
Open-Source Projects, by Hao He and 4 other authors
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    Abstract:Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated the
    promise to revolutionize the field of software engineering. Among
    other things, LLM agents are rapidly gaining momentum in software
    development, with practitioners reporting a multifold increase in
    productivity after adoption. Yet, empirical evidence is lacking
    around these claims. In this paper, we estimate the causal effect
    of adopting a widely popular LLM agent assistant, namely Cursor,
    on development velocity and software quality. The estimation is
    enabled by a state-of-the-art difference-in-differences design
    comparing Cursor-adopting GitHub projects with a matched control
    group of similar GitHub projects that do not use Cursor. We find
    that the adoption of Cursor leads to a statistically significant,
    large, but transient increase in project-level development
    velocity, along with a substantial and persistent increase in
    static analysis warnings and code complexity. Further panel
    generalized-method-of-moments estimation reveals that increases
    in static analysis warnings and code complexity are major factors
    driving long-term velocity slowdown. Our study identifies quality
    assurance as a major bottleneck for early Cursor adopters and
    calls for it to be a first-class citizen in the design of agentic
    AI coding tools and AI-driven workflows.

Subjects:          Software Engineering (cs.SE); Artificial
                   Intelligence (cs.AI)
Cite as:           arXiv:2511.04427 [cs.SE]
                   (or arXiv:2511.04427v3 [cs.SE] for this version)
                   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2511.04427
                   Focus to learn more
                   arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
                   23rd International Conference on Mining Software
Journal reference: Repositories (MSR '26), April 13--14, 2026, Rio de
                   Janeiro, Brazil
                   https://doi.org/10.1145/3793302.3793349
Related DOI:       Focus to learn more
                   DOI(s) linking to related resources

Submission history

From: Hao He [view email]
[v1] Thu, 6 Nov 2025 15:00:51 UTC (265 KB)
[v2] Thu, 13 Nov 2025 15:51:45 UTC (265 KB)
[v3] Mon, 26 Jan 2026 03:02:33 UTC (309 KB)
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    View a PDF of the paper titled Speed at the Cost of Quality: How
    Cursor AI Increases Short-Term Velocity and Long-Term Complexity
    in Open-Source Projects, by Hao He and 4 other authors
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