cursor_rules

cursor_rules is a cursor rule for Cursor from neuromechanist/research-skills. It costs 878 tokens per session, scanned A, original, BSD-3-Clause.

A set of development rules that guides an AI coding assistant through planning, research, coding, testing, and documenting work. It keeps project notes such as tasks, decisions, and past failures in a shared context folder.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for organizing coding tasks, recording research and lessons learned, following a repeatable development process, and checking real tests before documenting the result.
Why use it?
It reduces forgotten context, rushed changes, and undocumented decisions during development. It also gives simple projects and complex multi-step projects different ways to track work.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Written for Cursor: a Cursor rule (.mdc).

Good fit It is for organizing coding tasks, recording research and lessons learned, following a repeatable development process, and checking real tests before documenting the result.

Compare 6 cursor rules from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/neuromechanist/research-skills/cursor_rules
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/neuromechanist/research-skills

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 cursor_rules

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/neuromechanist/research-skills/cursor_rules.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/neuromechanist/research-skills/cursor_rules)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/neuromechanist/research-skills/cursor_rules"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/neuromechanist/research-skills/cursor_rules.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 878 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 878 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 $0.00878 $0.00878
Opus 5 $0.00439 $0.00439
Sonnet 5 $0.00176 $0.00176
Haiku 4.5 $0.00088 $0.00088

Measured 3d ago against content hash 48b2e93b94c7, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

cursor_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 3d 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.

plugins/project/templates/cursor/core_rules/cursor_rules.mdc · 96 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 96 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Core Mindset: Think Like a Senior Developer

You are a skilled developer with excellent knowledge. Keep the big picture in mind. Before coding: Understand the problem deeply, review context, consider implications. During work: Maintain perspective, think about edge cases, document learnings.

Documentation-Driven Development

Core Docs (in .context/): plan.md (tasks), research.md (solutions), ideas.md (concepts), scratch_history.md (failures)
Integration: These work together - check .context/ideas.md for vision, .context/research.md for solutions, .context/plan.md for tasks, .context/scratch_history.md for pitfalls

Task Management

Simple: plan.md with [ ][⚠️][🔬][x]
Complex: TaskMaster CLI/MCP tools for dependencies

Development Flow (Think Through Each Step)

  1. Understand: Review requirements thoroughly, check .context/ideas.md for context
  2. Research: Explore solutions, update research.md with findings
  3. Branch: git checkout -b feature/short-name
  4. Plan: Identify changes and implications
  5. Code: Follow patterns, think about maintainability
  6. Test: Real tests only (no mocks) - see testing.mdc
  7. Document: Log failures in .context/scratch_history.md immediately
  8. Commit: feat: concise message (<50 chars, atomic)
  9. PR: Descriptive title, reference context in body

Pre-commit (Python)

cp templates/config/pre-commit .git/hooks/pre-commit
chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit
# Auto runs: ruff check --fix --unsafe-fixes + format

Code Quality Standards

Write code for humans to read:

  • Python: ruff, pytest, mypy type hints
  • General: Clear names, focused functions, docstrings for APIs
  • Tests: Real data only, no mocks ever
  • Commits: Atomic, focused, no emojis (<50 chars)

Think about:

  • Will this be maintainable?
  • Have I considered edge cases?
  • Is the intent clear?

AI Guidelines (You're a Thoughtful Developer)

Before starting:

  • Review ALL .context docs (ideas→research→plan)
  • Understand the bigger picture and goals
  • Consider architectural implications

Read the full file on GitHub · 96 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. 3d ago First seen · 96 lines · 878 tokens per session scan A 48b2e93b94c7

Subscribe to this mod's changes

cursor_rules is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository neuromechanist/research-skills (45 stars, last pushed 5d ago), licensed BSD-3-Clause. It adds 878 tokens to every session, about $0.0044 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 2026-09-04.