no-helper-names

no-helper-names is a cursor rule for Cursor from briangmilnes/APAS-VERUS. It costs 0 tokens per session (288 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A naming rule for functions: each function name should describe its actual purpose instead of using vague names such as “helper” or “inner.”

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when naming or reviewing functions in a codebase, especially utility and internal functions.
Why use it?
Meaningless names force readers to inspect the implementation before understanding what a function does.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Written for Cursor: installed under .cursor/.

Good fit Use it when naming or reviewing functions in a codebase, especially utility and internal functions.

Compare 6 cursor rules from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/no-helper-names
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.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/briangmilnes/APAS-VERUS

Made for: Cursor.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for no-helper-names

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/no-helper-names/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/no-helper-names)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/no-helper-names"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/no-helper-names/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for no-helper-names

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/no-helper-names"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/no-helper-names.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 288 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00000 $0.00288
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00144
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00058
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00029

Measured 6d ago against content hash cad03adb5bc7, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

no-helper-names 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 6d 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/style/no-helper-names.mdc · 33 lines

What it actually says

No "helper" Function Names

Do not name functions helper, helper1, helper2, do_it, inner, or use suffixes like _impl, or similar meaningless names.

Bad Examples

fn helper<V>(arcs: Vec<Edge<V>>, v: V) -> SetStEph<V> { ... }
fn do_work(x: i32) -> i32 { ... }
fn inner(s: &str) -> bool { ... }
fn flatten_impl(ss: &Seq<Seq<T>>) -> Seq<T> { ... }  // all functions "implement" something

Good Examples

fn filter_arcs_by_source<V>(arcs: Vec<Edge<V>>, v: V) -> SetStEph<V> { ... }
fn compute_checksum(x: i32) -> i32 { ... }
fn is_valid_identifier(s: &str) -> bool { ... }

Rule

A function's name should describe what it does. Generic names like "helper" provide no information about purpose or behavior.

This applies to documentation too — do not describe a function as a "helper" in comments or doc strings. Say what it does, not that it "helps".

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. 6d ago First seen · 33 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A cad03adb5bc7

Subscribe to this mod's changes

no-helper-names is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository briangmilnes/APAS-VERUS (10 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 288 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 2026-09-03.