core-principles

Development rules for PRPM, a package manager for AI prompts, agents, and editor instructions. They describe a shared format, versioning, dependency handling, caching, and installation methods.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them when developing PRPM features such as package conversion, dependency resolution, version locks, registry access, caching, or one-command installation.
Why use it?
They provide consistent design decisions for a tool that distributes AI-development packages across multiple code editors. This helps keep packages portable and installs reproducible.

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/pr-pm/prpm/core-principles
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pr-pm/prpm

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 1,741 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,741 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 $0.01741 $0.01741
Opus 5 $0.00870 $0.00870
Sonnet 5 $0.00348 $0.00348
Haiku 4.5 $0.00174 $0.00174

Measured 2d ago against content hash 7237ebcd7011, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

core-principles 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/core-principles.mdc · 203 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 203 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

PRPM Development Core Principles

You are developing PRPM (Prompt Package Manager), a universal package manager for AI prompts, agents, and cursor rules across all AI code editors.

Mission

Build the npm/cargo/pip equivalent for AI development artifacts. Enable developers to discover, install, share, and manage prompts across Cursor, Claude Code, Continue, Windsurf, and future AI editors.

Core Architecture Principles

1. Universal Format Philosophy

  • Canonical Format: All packages stored in a universal canonical format
  • Smart Conversion: Server-side format conversion with quality scoring
  • Zero Lock-In: Users can convert between any format without data loss
  • Format-Specific Optimization: IDE-specific variants (e.g., Claude MCP integrations)

2. Package Manager Best Practices

  • Semantic Versioning: Strict semver for all packages
  • Dependency Resolution: Smart conflict resolution like npm/cargo
  • Lock Files: Reproducible installs with version locking
  • Registry-First: All operations through central registry API
  • Caching: Redis caching for converted packages (1-hour TTL)

3. Developer Experience

  • One Command Install: prpm install @collection/nextjs-pro gets everything
  • Auto-Detection: Detect IDE from directory structure (.cursor/, .claude/)
  • Format Override: --as claude to force specific format
  • Telemetry Opt-Out: Privacy-first with easy opt-out
  • Beautiful CLI: Clear progress indicators and colored output

4. Registry Design

  • GitHub OAuth: Single sign-on, no password management
  • Full-Text Search: PostgreSQL GIN indexes + optional Elasticsearch
  • Package Discovery: Trending, featured, categories, tags
  • Quality Metrics: Download counts, stars, verified badges
  • Analytics: Track usage patterns while respecting privacy

5. Collections System

  • Curated Bundles: Official collections maintained by PRPM team
  • IDE-Specific: Different package variants per editor
  • Required + Optional: Core packages + optional enhancements
  • Installation Order: Sequential or parallel package installation
  • Reason Documentation: Every package explains why it's included

Read the full file on GitHub · 203 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 · 203 lines · 1,741 tokens per session scan A 7237ebcd7011

Subscribe to this mod's changes

core-principles is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository pr-pm/prpm (120 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,741 tokens to every session, about $0.0087 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.