preferred-editing-tools

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/first-fluke/fullstack-starter/preferred-editing-tools

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/first-fluke/fullstack-starter

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.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/first-fluke/fullstack-starter/preferred-editing-tools.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/first-fluke/fullstack-starter/preferred-editing-tools)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/first-fluke/fullstack-starter/preferred-editing-tools"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/first-fluke/fullstack-starter/preferred-editing-tools.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Per session 4 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.

When invoked 562 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.

Origin unknown 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.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5	$0.00004	$0.00562
Opus 5	$0.00002	$0.00281
Sonnet 5	$0.00001	$0.00112
Haiku 4.5	$0.00000	$0.00056

Measured today against content hash dde704bb0653, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

preferred-editing-tools 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 today.

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/preferred-editing-tools.mdc · 50 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 50 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Preferred File Editing Tools

Overview

This rule mandates the use of specialized agentic tools for file modifications instead of fragile shell commands. It establishes a hierarchy of tools, prioritizing semantic and structural editing over raw text manipulation.

Rules

1. No Shell-Based Editing

Strictly prohibited to use the following for editing or creating files:

echo
sed
awk
printf
cat > filename
<<EOF heredocs

Why?

Usage of shell redaction allows for escaping issues, special character mismanagement, and encoding errors.
It often leads to corrupt files or partial writes in complex codebases.

2. Tool Priority Hierarchy

You MUST follow this priority order when selecting a tool for file modification. Always check if a higher-priority tool can accomplish the task before moving to a lower-priority one.

Priority 1: Standard Text Block Editing (Native)

Use these for simple, contiguous text replacements where structural tools are overkill or inapplicable.

replace_file_content: For replacing a single contiguous block of lines.
multi_replace_file_content: For making multiple, non-contiguous edits in a single file.

Priority 2: File Creation & Overwrite (Native)

Use these for new files or when a complete rewrite is easier/necessary.

write_to_file: For creating new files or overwriting existing files (with Overwrite: true).

Priority 3: Semantic & Symbolic Editing (Serena MCP)

Use these first. These tools respect the syntax and structure of the code (LSP-based).

mcp_serena_rename_symbol: For renaming variables, functions, classes, etc. across the codebase.
mcp_serena_insert_before_symbol / mcp_serena_insert_after_symbol: For inserting code relative to existing symbols (e.g., adding a method to a class).

Priority 4: Structured & Pattern-Based Editing (Serena MCP)

Use these if no specific symbol is targeted. These offer robust regex support and larger context handling.

mcp_serena_replace_content: For replacing content using powerful regex (Python re syntax) or literal strings.
- Tip: Use regex mode with wildcards (e.g., start.*?end) to safely replace blocks without quoting the entire content.

Read the full file on GitHub · 50 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.

today First seen · 50 lines · 4 tokens per session scan A dde704bb0653

Subscribe to this mod's changes

preferred-editing-tools is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository first-fluke/fullstack-starter (222 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 4 tokens to every session and 562 once invoked, about $0.0000 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 2026-09-03.

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