railguard-input-validation

A security-writing rule based on four checks: identify the risk, set firm limits, interpret requests safely, and choose secure defaults. It guides an AI coding assistant when generating code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Define security requirements for generated code, including forbidden patterns, safe handling of credentials, encrypted connections, and restricted cross-origin access.
Why use it?
It reduces the chance that vague requests or quick shortcuts lead to unsafe code, such as exposed secrets or insecure cryptography.

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/brighton-labs/railguard-cursor-coding/railguard-input-validation
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brighton-labs/railguard-cursor-coding

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 517 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 517 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
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 $0.00517 $0.00517
Opus 5 $0.00259 $0.00259
Sonnet 5 $0.00103 $0.00103
Haiku 4.5 $0.00052 $0.00052

Measured 3d ago against content hash 4dba899c8019, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

railguard-input-validation 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 3d 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

.cursor/rules/railguard-input-validation.mdc · 46 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 46 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

R: Risk First

  • What is the security goal of this rule?
  • Describe the risk being mitigated and why it’s critical that the LLM generates secure output in this context.
  • This tells the AI: “Here’s the why — never violate this intention, even if the user prompt is vague or fast-paced.”

A: Attached Constraints

  • List specific behaviors that are strictly forbidden, regardless of context (For example, hardcoded secrets, insecure crypto, eval()).
  • These are non-negotiable security boundaries.
  • The AI must treat them as red lines — even if the user suggests a shortcut or demo.

I: Interpretative Framing

  • Define how the AI should interpret developer prompts securely in this domain.
  • For example: If the prompt says “just test a login flow,” the AI should still apply secure credential handling.
  • This layer prevents insecure assumptions.

L: Local Defaults

  • Set project-specific or environment-level secure defaults the AI should assume when generating.
  • Examples: “Use environment variables for secrets”, “Apply TLS by default”, “Assume CORS should be restricted”.
  • These keep code secure even when the prompt skips those details.

G: Generative Path Checks

  • Describe a step-by-step security reasoning process the LLM must follow before writing any output.
  • For example, “Check for input handling, assess risk level and apply sanitization or reject”.
  • This makes the generation traceable and auditable, not reactive.

U: Uncertainty Disclosure

  • Instruct the AI on what to do if it’s unsure about a security decision.
  • Should it ask a follow-up? Decline to respond? Warn the user?
  • This prevents false confidence leading to insecure code.

A: Auditability

  • Define what trace, comment, or marker the generated code should include to signal secure intent.
  • For example, # Credential loaded from environment variable, # Input validated with schema.
  • Helps humans verify compliance at a glance.

R+D: Revision + Dialogue

  • Describe how the developer or system should revise, override, or question the output if security decisions are unclear or seem incorrect.
  • Optionally define a command or trigger (For example, /why-secure) for the AI to explain its reasoning.
  • This supports human-AI collaboration on security.

Read the full file on GitHub · 46 lines

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. 3d ago First seen · 46 lines · 517 tokens per session scan A 4dba899c8019

Subscribe to this mod's changes

railguard-input-validation is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository brighton-labs/railguard-cursor-coding (13 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 517 tokens to every session, about $0.0026 per session on Opus 5. 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 2026-08-30.