Guidelines for writing code that is easy to read and maintain. They focus on descriptive names, named constants, small single-purpose functions, useful comments, reuse, and logical organization.

Use it when writing or reviewing code in any language. It helps replace hard-coded values, choose clearer names, split large functions, reuse shared logic, and organize files.

It reduces the effort needed to understand and change code by avoiding hidden meanings, repeated logic, and tangled responsibilities. The rules distinguish comments that explain reasons from comments that merely repeat the code.

clean-code — Cursor rule by mitas

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/mitas/cursor-rules/clean-code

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mitas/cursor-rules

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 25 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.

When invoked 645 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.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5	$0.00025	$0.00645
Opus 5	$0.00013	$0.00322
Sonnet 5	$0.00005	$0.00129
Haiku 4.5	$0.00003	$0.00064

Measured yesterday against content hash bfd608789bf2, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

clean-code 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.

.cursor/rules/clean-code.mdc · 103 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 103 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Code Quality Guidelines

Clean Code Principles

Constants Over Magic Numbers

Replace hard-coded values with named constants
Use descriptive constant names that explain the value's purpose
Keep constants at the top of the file or in a dedicated constants file

Meaningful Names

Variables, functions, and classes should reveal their purpose
Names should explain why something exists and how it's used
Avoid abbreviations unless they're universally understood

Smart Comments

Don't comment on what the code does - make the code self-documenting
Use comments to explain why something is done a certain way
Document APIs, complex algorithms, and non-obvious side effects

Single Responsibility

Each function should do exactly one thing
Functions should be small and focused
If a function needs a comment to explain what it does, it should be split

DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself)

Extract repeated code into reusable functions
Share common logic through proper abstraction
Maintain single sources of truth

Clean Structure

Keep related code together
Organize code in a logical hierarchy
Use consistent file and folder naming conventions

Encapsulation

Hide implementation details
Expose clear interfaces
Move nested conditionals into well-named functions

Code Quality Maintenance

Refactor continuously
Fix technical debt early
Leave code cleaner than you found it

Testing

Write tests before fixing bugs
Keep tests readable and maintainable
Test edge cases and error conditions

Version Control

Write clear commit messages
Make small, focused commits
Use meaningful branch names

Quality Assurance Practices

Verify Information

Always verify information before presenting it.
Do not make assumptions or speculate without clear evidence.

File-by-File Changes

Make changes file by file and give the user a chance to spot mistakes.

No Apologies

Never use apologies in code or documentation.

Read the full file on GitHub · 103 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.

yesterday First seen · 103 lines · 25 tokens per session scan A bfd608789bf2

Subscribe to this mod's changes

clean-code is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository mitas/cursor-rules (2 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 25 tokens to every session and 645 once invoked, about $0.0001 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.

Writing and docs

clean-code