problem-solving

problem-solving is a cursor rule for Cursor from timurgaleev/vibestack. It costs 691 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

A problem-solving guide for clarifying assumptions, defining a checkable goal, and finding the underlying cause of a problem before coding. It recommends asking questions when a request has multiple possible meanings.

In plain words
What is it for?
It supports planning work, resolving ambiguity, investigating bugs, and defining evidence that a change is complete.
Why use it?
It helps avoid building the wrong solution from silent assumptions or vague instructions.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Written for Cursor: a Cursor rule (.mdc). Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md.

Good fit It supports planning work, resolving ambiguity, investigating bugs, and defining evidence that a change is complete.

Compare 6 cursor rules from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/timurgaleev/vibestack/problem-solving
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/timurgaleev/vibestack

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 problem-solving

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/timurgaleev/vibestack/problem-solving/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/timurgaleev/vibestack/problem-solving)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/timurgaleev/vibestack/problem-solving"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/timurgaleev/vibestack/problem-solving/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for problem-solving

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/timurgaleev/vibestack/problem-solving"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/timurgaleev/vibestack/problem-solving.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 691 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 691 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 $0.00691 $0.00691
Opus 5 $0.00345 $0.00345
Sonnet 5 $0.00138 $0.00138
Haiku 4.5 $0.00069 $0.00069

Measured yesterday against content hash 47afa6f06835, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-20, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

problem-solving 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.

config/cursor/rules/problem-solving.mdc · 74 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 74 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Problem Solving

The single source for how to approach a problem before and during implementation. CLAUDE.md carries only the summary.

Think Before Coding

Do not let an assumption pass as fact. Do not hide confusion. Surface trade-offs.

The most common failure is quietly picking one interpretation and running with it. Code built on a wrong assumption is thrown away in full, however much of it there is.

  • State assumptions — one line of "proceeding on the assumption that X" is enough.
  • Surface multiple readings — if the request is ambiguous, list two or three possible interpretations and ask which one. Do not silently choose.
  • Offer the simpler alternative first — say so as soon as you see one. If the user's approach is over-complicated, push back with reasons.
  • Stop when confused — "I'll ask if I get stuck partway" is not allowed. Name what is unclear and ask.

Goal-Driven Execution

Convert an imperative instruction into a verifiable exit condition before starting. Only a strong exit condition lets you work independently and judge your own completion.

Vague instruction Verifiable goal
"fix the bug" write a test that reproduces it → make it pass → lock it in as a regression test
"refactor this" the same test suite passes before and after
"make it faster" define a measured baseline and a target number → verify by measuring
"clean it up" meets the defined lint / typecheck / coverage bar
"make it work" ask the user what "done" looks like, first

For multi-step work, state the verification per step — 1. [step] → verify: [how]. A step with no defined verification does not belong in the plan.

Root Cause Analysis

Reproduce → Investigate → Root Cause → Fix → Verify

  1. Reproduce — capture the exact error message, stack trace, and environment.
  2. Investigate
    • Read the error message carefully; it often contains the cause.
    • Check logs for the pattern leading up to the failure.
    • Trace the execution path from entry point to failure point.
    • Verify assumptions with the smallest possible experiment.
  3. Root Cause
    • Ask "Why?" until you reach the underlying issue.
    • Separate symptom from cause ("API returns 500" vs "connection pool exhausted").
    • Look for the systemic version of the problem, not the one-off.
  4. Fix — remove the cause, not the symptom. Mark any workaround as temporary and file the follow-up.
  5. Verify — add a regression test and scan for the same cause on other code paths.

Read the full file on GitHub · 74 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. yesterday First seen · 74 lines · 691 tokens per session scan A 47afa6f06835

Subscribe to this mod's changes

problem-solving is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository timurgaleev/vibestack (6 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 691 tokens to every session, about $0.0035 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 2026-09-19.