Cursor Rules

A collection of cognitive enhancement rules and methodologies for AI-assisted development.

Overview

This repository contains a comprehensive system of rules and notepads designed to enhance AI-assisted software development workflows. These rules have been battle-tested in production environments and represent best practices for working with AI coding assistants.

Structure

cursor-rules/
├── rules/              # Hierarchical rule system
│   ├── 000-core/       # Foundational principles
│   ├── 100-cognitive/  # Thinking and reasoning patterns
│   ├── 200-domain/     # Domain-specific rules
│   ├── 200-engineering/# Software engineering practices
│   ├── 300-integration/# Tool integration guidelines
│   ├── 300-techniques/ # Technical approaches
│   ├── 400-patterns/   # Development patterns
│   └── 600-experimental/# Experimental features
└── notepads/           # Reusable contexts and frameworks

Rule Categories

Core Rules (000-core)

Foundational principles that underpin all other rules:

• Philosopher's Stone: Strategic execution protocols
• Pareto Prioritization: 80/20 principle application
• Stepwise Autonomy: Progressive delegation patterns

Cognitive Rules (100-cognitive)

Enhanced thinking and reasoning patterns:

• Ultrathink Prompting: Deep analysis techniques
• Wildcard Brainstorming: Creative exploration methods
• Divergence-Convergence: Problem-solving frameworks

Domain Rules (200-domain)

Specialized rules for specific technical domains:

• Analytics engineering (dbt, SQL)
• Python development
• Data science workflows
• API design patterns

Integration Rules (300-integration)

Guidelines for tool integration:

• Cursor IDE optimization
• Multi-model coordination
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers

Pattern Rules (400-patterns)

Best practices and design patterns:

• Security guidelines
• Testing strategies
• Performance optimization
• Error handling

Usage

In Cursor IDE

1. Manual Import: Copy desired rules to your project's .cursorrules file
2. Symlink Method: Create symbolic links to rules you want to use
3. Submodule Integration: Add this repository as a git submodule

Rule Format

Rules use the .mdc extension (Markdown with YAML frontmatter):

---
id: rule-name
title: Rule Title
description: Brief description
dependencies: [optional-dependencies]
---

# Rule Content

Detailed rule documentation in Markdown format...

Notepads

The notepads/ directory contains reusable contexts and frameworks:

• Project initiation playbooks
• Security checklists
• Research frameworks
• Data analytics patterns
• Git workflows

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Follow the existing naming conventions
2. Include comprehensive documentation
3. Test rules in real projects before submitting
4. Open an issue for discussion before major changes

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

These rules were developed through extensive real-world usage and represent collective wisdom from the AI-assisted development community.