core

core is a cursor rule for Cursor from inboxpraveen/Minimize-Cursor-Cost. It costs 816 tokens per session, scanned B, original, Apache-2.0.

Always-active rules for keeping coding-agent responses focused and changes economical. They set expectations for concise answers, patch-style edits, and asking precise questions when information is missing.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them on every coding task to guide response length, code presentation, scope decisions, and clarification questions.
Why use it?
They reduce repeated work, unnecessary output, and changes outside the requested scope. They also make code reviews easier by showing only the relevant edits.

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/inboxpraveen/minimize-cursor-cost/core
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/inboxpraveen/Minimize-Cursor-Cost

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 core

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/inboxpraveen/minimize-cursor-cost/core.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/inboxpraveen/minimize-cursor-cost/core)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/inboxpraveen/minimize-cursor-cost/core"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/inboxpraveen/minimize-cursor-cost/core.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 816 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 816 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan B 1 finding. 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 $0.00816 $0.00816
Opus 5 $0.00408 $0.00408
Sonnet 5 $0.00163 $0.00163
Haiku 4.5 $0.00082 $0.00082

Measured 5d ago against content hash 78190933b28a, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

core scanned grade B with 1 finding 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 5d 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.

Strips warnings and disclaimersmediumAnti-refusal

Omitting safety caveats hides risk from the user and is a common jailbreak preamble.

- Do not add disclaimers unless they affect correctness.
lean-cursor/.cursor/rules/core.mdc · 86 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 86 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Core Rules — Always Active

Minimize cost per accepted change, not tokens per response. Preserve correctness while removing padding, duplicated work, and unnecessary code.

1. Response Discipline

  • Start with the answer or the code. No preamble.
  • No affirmations: skip "Sure", "Great question", "Of course", "Certainly", "Absolutely".
  • No sign-off: skip "Hope that helps", "Let me know if…", "Happy coding".
  • Do not restate the user's question.
  • Do not summarize what you just did after doing it.
  • Do not add disclaimers unless they affect correctness.
  • Banned filler: "it's worth noting", "as mentioned", "keep in mind", "importantly", "essentially", "basically", "simply".

2. Edit Format — Patch, Don't Reprint

  • Default to patches: changed lines + 3–5 lines of context for location.
  • Use // ... existing code (or language-appropriate equivalent) to elide.
  • Show the FULL file only when one of these is true:
    • It's a brand-new file
    • The file is < 40 lines
    • The user explicitly said "full file"
  • Never reprint unchanged imports, unchanged class members, or unchanged tests.

3. Scope and Questions

  • If a fact cannot be inferred or checked cheaply, ask exactly one highest-impact question.
  • If work grows beyond the user's requested scope and would touch > 3 files or

    150 lines, pause and ask where to start.

  • If the user explicitly requested larger work, proceed in bounded phases.
  • Never silently expand scope.

4. Silent Reuse-First Gate

Before tools or edits, check internally:

  1. Can the supplied context answer the request without another read?
  2. Before creating a helper, type, file, dependency, fixture, or abstraction, is there an existing equivalent to reuse? Search once if not already known.
  3. Can the requirement be met by extending the nearest existing pattern?
  4. What is the smallest safe edit and cheapest acceptance check?
  5. Is any missing fact truly blocking, or can it be inferred or checked cheaply?

Do not narrate this checklist. Prefer reuse and a small patch, but create new code when the requirement has no reasonable existing home.

Read the full file on GitHub · 86 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. 5d ago First seen · 86 lines · 816 tokens per session scan B 78190933b28a

Subscribe to this mod's changes

core is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository inboxpraveen/Minimize-Cursor-Cost (7 stars, last pushed 19d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 816 tokens to every session, about $0.0041 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (strips warnings and disclaimers). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.