Build the InstaLite Core Flow
Explore how to build the core functionality of InstaLite, a small Instagram-style web app, by planning the project setup, scaffolding the Flask environment, and implementing post creation, likes, comments, and deletion features. This lesson guides you through a complete workflow to turn an empty workspace into a working social app.
Our project idea is clear. Now we can begin turning that idea into a working app. That first step matters because a social product only starts to feel real once we can move beyond the empty workspace and see actual posts, interactions, and visible product behavior.
As we are building inside Cursor, we are not only asking for interface changes. We are also shaping the workspace, the setup, and the app structure as we go. That makes planning, scaffolding, and feature building feel like one connected flow.
Build along in Cursor:
Keep Cursor open as you work through this lesson and run each prompt as you reach it. Cursor may generate different wording, package versions, file structures, or port numbers each time. That is expected. The output should still target the same product goal, and this lesson uses one build path as a concrete example.
Plan the project setup
The first step is not to jump straight into feature generation. Because InstaLite starts from an empty workspace, we should ask Cursor to plan the setup before asking it to build the app. This gives us a clearer implementation path and reduces the risk of poor setup decisions early in the project. Let’s give Cursor the prompt below:
Prompt:
We are starting a new project called InstaLite in an empty folder.
Project overview:
InstaLite is a small Instagram-style web app for practice. The app is for people who want to share simple image posts with captions in a clean social feed. In this project, we want to build a small but polished social app step by step using Cursor.Stack:
Flask
SQLAlchemyFor now, do not start writing the full app yet.
Help me plan the project setup and the first build step clearly.
Please do these things:
Briefly restate the project so we are aligned.
Tell me exactly what dependencies, tools, and setup steps we need before coding.
Keep the plan focused only on getting ready to build the app.
This prompt works well because it does three important things before any code is generated.
It defines the project clearly.
It names the stack without overexplaining the implementation.
It tells Cursor to stay in planning mode instead of jumping ahead.
Here, we can see the complete Cursor response for the above prompt:
Cursor responds with a practical setup plan. It restates InstaLite as a small social app, recommends the main ...