research-before-suggesting

research-before-suggesting is a cursor rule for Cursor from hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets. It costs 216 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

A rule that requires checking documentation or the existing codebase before suggesting technical features, commands, APIs, or file structures.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when proposing technical solutions, adding project components, checking internal conventions, or making architecture decisions.
Why use it?
It prevents advice based on invented options or assumptions about how a library, tool, or project is organized.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Written for Cursor: installed under .cursor/.

Good fit Use it when proposing technical solutions, adding project components, checking internal conventions, or making architecture decisions.

Compare 6 cursor rules from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets/research-before-suggesting
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/hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets

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 research-before-suggesting

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets/research-before-suggesting/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets/research-before-suggesting)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets/research-before-suggesting"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets/research-before-suggesting/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 research-before-suggesting

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets/research-before-suggesting"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets/research-before-suggesting.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 216 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 216 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
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 $0.00216 $0.00216
Opus 5 $0.00108 $0.00108
Sonnet 5 $0.00043 $0.00043
Haiku 4.5 $0.00022 $0.00022

Measured 8d ago against content hash 2b698dcf19c8, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

research-before-suggesting 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 8d 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/research-before-suggesting.mdc · 18 lines

What it actually says

Do not invent or assume features, flags, APIs, or config options exist. Do not claim something works based on "what makes sense."

When suggesting technical solutions involving library APIs, CLI tools, framework features, or packages:

  1. Search docs or web to verify it exists
  2. Confirm exact syntax and behavior
  3. Only then suggest it

When uncertain, say so and research first.

Applies to internal codebase too: Before creating a new component, folder, utility, or pattern, read the existing codebase to see how the same kind of thing is already done. Check docs/folder-structure.md, then read the nearest existing implementation. Do not assume a structure is correct because it "makes sense" — verify it matches what already exists.

If the question requires comparing options or making an architectural decision, use the research skill for a deeper investigation.

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. 8d ago First seen · 18 lines · 216 tokens per session scan A 2b698dcf19c8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

research-before-suggesting is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository hlalljie/agent-workflow-presets (2 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 216 tokens to every session, about $0.0011 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 2026-08-31.