rails-rules

A complete set of development rules for Rails 8 or newer, using Rails conventions, PostgreSQL, Hotwire, background jobs, caching, file uploads, and Minitest. Minitest is a Ruby testing library; Hotwire updates pages with small amounts of JavaScript.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it as the main project guide when building a Rails application, choosing its architecture, adding authentication or jobs, handling uploads, writing tests, formatting code, detecting inefficient queries, and deploying with Docker.
Why use it?
It gives a solo developer and coding agent one consistent way to build and maintain the application. It also records preferred tools for authentication, deployment, styling, testing, and code quality.

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/levifig/rails-instructions/rails-rules
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/levifig/rails-instructions

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 3,067 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 3,067 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 $0.03067 $0.03067
Opus 5 $0.01533 $0.01533
Sonnet 5 $0.00613 $0.00613
Haiku 4.5 $0.00307 $0.00307

Measured 2d ago against content hash 336d6087ac62, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

rails-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 2d 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/rails-rules.mdc · 438 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 438 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Rails Development Rules - The Rails Way with AI Agents

Built for: Solo developer + AI agents, Linear MCP integration, maximum joy

Core Philosophy

You are building a Rails 8+ application following The Rails Way™. Code should be:

  • Convention over configuration
  • Database-first design
  • Progressive enhancement with Hotwire
  • Zero-build frontend approach
  • Test-driven with Minitest
  • Optimized for AI agent collaboration
  • Lean, readable, and maintainable

Rails 8+ Stack Preferences

  • Authentication: Rails built-in (rails generate authentication)
  • Background Jobs: Solid Queue (default Rails 8)
  • Caching: Solid Cache (database-backed, Redis when needed)
  • WebSockets: Action Cable with Solid Cable adapter
  • Database: PostgreSQL with Active Record
  • Frontend: Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus) + TailwindCSS
  • Asset Pipeline: Propshaft (simpler, no-build approach)
  • Testing: Minitest with fixtures (no RSpec, no factories)
  • Rich Text: Action Text for content editing
  • File Uploads: Active Storage with direct uploads
  • Deployment: Kamal with Docker
  • Code Quality: StandardRB for linting/formatting
  • Development Tools: Bullet gem for N+1 detection, Annotate gem for schema docs
  • Error Tracking: Rails built-in error reporter

Detailed Guides

This document provides core principles. For detailed implementation guidance, see:

Read the full file on GitHub · 438 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. 2d ago First seen · 438 lines · 3,067 tokens per session scan A 336d6087ac62

Subscribe to this mod's changes

rails-rules is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository levifig/rails-instructions (54 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 3,067 tokens to every session, about $0.0153 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.