backend-rules

A set of rules for building backend services with Node.js and TypeScript, using tools such as Express or Fastify and databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL. It defines project structure, REST API patterns, and response formats.

In plain words
What is it for?
For structuring server applications, defining HTTP endpoints, organizing business logic and database models, and standardizing API responses.
Why use it?
It gives a project a consistent way to organize server code and return success, error, and paginated results. This reduces ambiguity when several developers work on the same backend.

Cursor rule

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/ddr187/cursor-howto/backend-rules
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/DDR187/cursor-howto
Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 2,706 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 $0.02706
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.01353
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00541
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00271

Measured yesterday against content hash c194dba831d9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

backend-rules 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 yesterday.

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.

02-rules/backend-rules.mdc · 576 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 576 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Backend Development Rules

Tech Stack

  • Node.js 20+
  • TypeScript 5+
  • Express / Fastify
  • Prisma ORM
  • PostgreSQL / MySQL

Project Structure

server/
├── src/
│   ├── routes/        # Route definitions
│   ├── controllers/   # Controllers
│   ├── services/      # Business logic
│   ├── models/        # Data models
│   ├── middleware/    # Middleware
│   ├── utils/         # Utility functions
│   ├── types/         # Type definitions
│   ├── config/        # Configuration files
│   └── app.ts         # Application entry
├── prisma/
│   └── schema.prisma  # Database models
└── tests/
    ├── unit/
    └── integration/

API Design Standards

RESTful API

GET    /api/users           # Get user list
GET    /api/users/:id       # Get single user
POST   /api/users           # Create user
PUT    /api/users/:id       # Update user
DELETE /api/users/:id       # Delete user

Response Format

// Success response
interface SuccessResponse<T> {
  success: true;
  data: T;
  message?: string;
}

// Error response
interface ErrorResponse {
  success: false;
  error: {
    code: string;
    message: string;
    details?: unknown;
  };
}

// Paginated response
interface PaginatedResponse<T> {
  success: true;
  data: T[];
  pagination: {
    page: number;
    limit: number;
    total: number;
    totalPages: number;
  };
}

Status Code Standards

200 OK              # Success
201 Created         # Created successfully
204 No Content      # Deleted successfully
400 Bad Request     # Invalid request parameters
401 Unauthorized    # Not authenticated
403 Forbidden       # No permission
404 Not Found       # Resource not found
409 Conflict        # Resource conflict
422 Unprocessable   # Validation failed
500 Internal Error  # Server error

Controller Standards

Controller Template

import { Request, Response, NextFunction } from 'express';
import { UserService } from '../services/user.service';
import { AppError } from '../middleware/error';

export class UserController {
  constructor(private userService: UserService) {}

  async getUsers(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) {
    try {
      const { page = 1, limit = 10 } = req.query;
      const result = await this.userService.findAll({
        page: Number(page),
        limit: Number(limit)
      });
      
      res.json({
        success: true,
        data: result.data,
        pagination: result.pagination
      });
    } catch (error) {
      next(error);
    }
  }

  async createUser(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) {
    try {
      const user = await this.userService.create(req.body);
      
      res.status(201).json({
        success: true,
        data: user,
        message: 'User created successfully'
      });
    } catch (error) {
      next(error);
    }
  }
}

Read the full file on GitHub · 576 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. yesterday First seen · 576 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A c194dba831d9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

backend-rules is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository DDR187/cursor-howto (2 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 2,706 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.