How I Replaced Cursor with My Own Local AI Dev Assistant using Ollama 💻🤖 - Build With Chai

As a fullstack freelance developer, I rely heavily on productivity tools. For the past few months, I’ve been using @cursor_ai, and honestly — it’s been a game-changer. For just $20/month, Cursor provided a smart and AI-enhanced development environment that blended well with my workflow.

But as my usage increased, something started bothering me…

The Cost vs. Usage Dilemma 💸

Since I often work on multiple large projects at once (freelance life 😅), I noticed my usage growing fast. And with Cursor’s billing model, I realized that continuing at my current rate might end up costing me $100/month or more.

That’s not a small amount, especially when you’re bootstrapping, freelancing, and juggling multiple responsibilities. So I started looking for an alternative — something that gives me similar power, but without recurring costs.

The Gen AI Class That Sparked an Idea ⚡

I had also enrolled in the Generative AI class by @Hiteshdotcom and @piyushgarg_dev. While I’ve not been super active due to client overload, I’ve been quietly absorbing the content when I get time.

And that class clicked something for me.

Why not build my own mini Cursor, but locally, using open-source LLMs?

Enter Ollama: Lightweight Local LLMs 🧠

I discovered Ollama, a tool that lets you run large language models (like LLaMA, Mistral, and others) locally on your machine with minimal setup.

It’s like having ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot, but offline and private.

So I rolled up my sleeves and started hacking.

What I Built 🛠️

I integrated Ollama with a lightweight dev environment and built something that can:

• Accept natural language prompts

• Generate boilerplate code

• Explain code snippets

• Debug basic errors

• All within my local VS Code setup

It doesn’t have the complete polish or smart code navigation of Cursor (yet!), but it solves 80% of my daily AI dev assistant needs — and it costs me nothing extra.

My First Achievement from the Gen AI Class 🎉

Even though I couldn’t attend all the classes and finish every assignment, this felt like a solid win.

I took what I learned, applied it to a real-life freelancing problem, and built a working solution that saves me money and time. That, to me, is what learning should be about.

Lessons & Takeaways 💡

• You don’t need a perfect environment to learn — real-world projects are assignments.

• Building your own tools, even if they’re small, creates massive confidence.

• Local LLMs like Ollama are underrated and super powerful — give them a try.

What’s Next? 🚀

This was just a start. I’m already thinking of adding:

• Auto code reviews locally

• Prompt memory for context-aware answers

• Git integration

• Custom prompt templates for different tech stacks (MERN, PHP, Next.js, etc.)

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If you’re a developer trying to balance freelance work, classes, and personal growth — you’re not alone.

Keep building. Even small wins count. 🙌