Cursor Rules Generator

.cursorrules is a configuration file for Cursor IDE that tells the AI assistant how to behave in your project. It defines coding conventions, language rules, testing expectations, and project-specific behaviors. When present in your project root, Cursor automatically applies these rules to every AI interaction in the project.

Place .cursorrules in the root of your project (same directory as package.json, go.mod, or Cargo.toml). Cursor automatically detects and applies it. For monorepos, you can place separate .cursorrules files in each package directory — Cursor uses the nearest one.

Global rules (set in Cursor Settings → AI → Custom Instructions) apply to every project. Project-level .cursorrules only apply when Cursor is opened in that specific project directory. Project rules take precedence and are ideal for framework-specific conventions, while global rules are good for universal preferences like response language or verbosity.

Open Cursor's AI panel and ask a question about your codebase. The AI should reflect your rules in its suggestions. You can also check Cursor Settings → AI to see if the file is being detected. If rules aren't applying, make sure the file is named exactly .cursorrules (dot prefix, no extension) and is in the project root.

Yes — .cursorrules works across all AI models available in Cursor (GPT-4, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini, etc.). The rules are injected as system context regardless of which model you select. Some rules may be more reliably followed by larger models.