core-principles

A set of project-wide coding rules covering structure, naming, validation, search, and limits on placeholders and unfinished code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when adding or changing TypeScript and React code, especially when deciding file names, component names, folder structure, and required validation commands.
Why use it?
It gives changes a consistent shape and prevents incomplete logic, unnecessary edits, dead code, and skipped checks.

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/virastack/ai/core-principles
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/virastack/ai

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 653 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 653 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 $0.00653 $0.00653
Opus 5 $0.00327 $0.00327
Sonnet 5 $0.00131 $0.00131
Haiku 4.5 $0.00065 $0.00065

Measured yesterday against content hash 4ff0a721c366, 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 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.

templates/core/.cursor/rules/core-principles.mdc · 65 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 65 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Core Constitution

Constraints

  • INTENTIONAL_TODO Rule: Usage is ONLY permitted for non-functional placeholders (e.g., temporary mock UI, future logging).
  • Business Integrity: Forbidden to use INTENTIONAL_TODO for business logic, error handling, or API integrations.
  • Pseudo-code: Forbidden. Provide working TypeScript/React code.
  • Reference: Do not say "Usually done like this"; link to repo rules.
  • Validation: Do not deliver without passing pnpm typecheck and pnpm lint.
  • Search First: Analyze existing patterns before coding.
  • Minimal Intervention: Modify only necessary areas.
  • Source of Truth: Reference the codebase. Correct it if erroneous.
  • Boy Scout: Clean unused imports, console.log, and dead code.
  • Naming Conventions (STRICT):
    • Folders & core files: kebab-case (e.g., locale-switcher, query-client.ts)
    • Components: PascalCase (e.g., UserList.tsx)
    • UI Elements: kebab-case (e.g., button.tsx)
    • Hooks: use-users.ts (file), useUsers (function)
    • Types/Interfaces: PascalCase without 'Type' suffix (e.g., User, SiteConfig)
    • Suffixes: *.data.ts, *.store.ts, *.types.ts, *.constants.ts (base name in kebab-case).
  • Imports & Aliases: Use short aliases and barrel exports (index.ts). Prefer @/ui, @/hooks, @/data, @/schemas, @/layout. Avoid long paths like @/components/ui.
  • Exports: Group exports with index.ts.
  • No Silent Failures: Do not swallow errors. Manage try/catch blocks.
  • Observability: Log critical failures to an external service, not just console.error.
  • Resilience: Wrap feature modules in Error Boundaries to prevent full-page crashes.
  • Secret Protection: Do not log .env content.
  • Dependency: Obtain approval for new packages.

Bans

  • Comments (except JSDoc).
  • Placeholders/incomplete code.
  • catch (e) {} (Silent catch).
  • Logging secrets.
  • Out-of-scope refactoring.
  • // ...existing code (Provide full blocks).
  • Standard TODO or FIXME comments.
  • Using INTENTIONAL_TODO to skip core logic implementation.
  • Parent-relative imports (../, ../../). Use path aliases only.

Read the full file on GitHub · 65 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 · 65 lines · 653 tokens per session scan A 4ff0a721c366

Subscribe to this mod's changes

core-principles is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository virastack/ai (23 stars, last pushed 25d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 653 tokens to every session, about $0.0033 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.

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