project-definition-template

A documentation template for defining a project’s purpose, technology choices, folder layout, libraries, setup process, and contribution rules. It is intended to make project context available in the README.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps create or review README sections covering goals, the technical stack, directories, custom components, dependencies, setup, and contribution guidance.
Why use it?
It prevents important onboarding and maintenance information from being left undocumented or scattered across the repository.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/abderrahimghazali/cursor-rules/project-definition-template
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/abderrahimghazali/cursor-rules

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 718 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00718
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00359
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00144
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00072

Measured 2d ago against content hash cd16de16dc29, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

project-definition-template scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.cursor/rules/project-definition-template.mdc · 79 lines

What it actually says

Comprehensive Project Definition Template

This rule enforces best practices for documenting project context, ensuring clarity and maintainability through well-documented README files and documentation.

actions:

  • type: enforce conditions:

    • pattern: "## Project Purpose" message: "Define the purpose of the project in the README file, including its goals and objectives."

    • pattern: "## Technical Stack" message: "List the technical stack used in the project in the README file, including language versions and frameworks."

    • pattern: "## Folder Structure" message: "Document the folder structure in the README file with a brief explanation for each significant directory."

    • pattern: "## Customizations" message: "Include any custom themes, modules, or libraries in the README file, explaining their functionality."

    • pattern: "## Libraries" message: "List any third-party libraries used in the project in the README file, including versions for reproducibility."

    • pattern: "## Setup Instructions" message: "Provide clear setup instructions in the README to help new contributors or users get started."

    • pattern: "## Contribution Guidelines" message: "Document contribution guidelines if the project is open-source or team-based."

  • type: suggest message: | Project Definition Best Practices:

    • README and Docs: Use both README.md for an overview and /docs/ for detailed documentation.
    • Project Purpose: Clearly articulate why the project exists, its objectives, and who it serves.
    • Technical Stack: Include all technologies, versions, and possibly why each was chosen.
    • Folder Structure: Use tree diagrams or simple bullet points to describe the project's layout.
    • Customizations: Explain any custom code, including its purpose and how it integrates with the project.
    • Libraries: Detail external dependencies, why they're used, and how to manage them (e.g., npm, composer).
    • Setup Instructions: Provide step-by-step guidance for setting up the project environment.
    • Contribution Guidelines: Outline how to contribute, including coding standards, branch management, and pull request process.
    • License: Include information about the project's licensing for legal clarity.
    • Roadmap: Optionally, add a roadmap section to discuss future plans or features.
  • type: validate conditions:

    • pattern: "## Project Purpose" message: "Ensure the project purpose is clearly defined for understanding the project's intent."

    • pattern: "## Technical Stack" message: "Ensure the technical stack is documented to aid in tech stack comprehension."

    • pattern: "## Folder Structure" message: "Ensure the folder structure is outlined for navigation ease."

    • pattern: "## Customizations" message: "Ensure customizations are documented for understanding unique project elements."

    • pattern: "## Libraries" message: "Ensure libraries are listed for dependency management."

    • pattern: "## Setup Instructions" message: "Ensure setup instructions are included to facilitate onboarding."

metadata: priority: medium version: 1.1

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 79 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A cd16de16dc29

Subscribe to this mod's changes

project-definition-template is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository abderrahimghazali/cursor-rules (2 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 718 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.