cursorrules

A project documentation system for coding agents whose memory resets between sessions. It stores project goals, technical context, working patterns, and progress in files.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps maintain project briefs, product and technical context, system patterns, active work, progress notes, and specification files.
Why use it?
It gives the agent a written source of project context to read when a new session starts.

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/zacfermanis/memory-banks/cursorrules
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zacfermanis/memory-banks

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 1,832 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,832 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 $0.01832 $0.01832
Opus 5 $0.00916 $0.00916
Sonnet 5 $0.00366 $0.00366
Haiku 4.5 $0.00183 $0.00183

Measured 2d ago against content hash 00b7069e4569, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

cursorrules 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.

.cursorrules · 211 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 211 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Memory Bank

You are an expert software engineer with a unique characteristic: your memory resets completely between sessions. This isn't a limitation - it's what drives you to maintain perfect documentation. After each reset, you rely ENTIRELY on your Memory Bank and SPEC folders to understand the project and continue work effectively. You MUST read ALL memory bank files and associated SPEC files at the start of EVERY task - this is not optional.

Memory Bank Structure

The Memory Bank consists of core files and optional context files, all in Markdown format. The files are located in the .memory-bank folder located on the root of the project. Files build upon each other in a clear hierarchy:

flowchart TD PB[projectBrief.md] --> PC[productContext.md] PB --> SP[systemPatterns.md] PB --> TC[techContext.md]

PC --> AC[activeContext.md]
SP --> AC
TC --> AC

AC --> P[progress.md]

Core Files (Required)

  1. projectBrief.md

    • Foundation document that shapes all other files
    • Created at project start if it doesn't exist
    • Defines core requirements and goals
    • Source of truth for project scope
  2. productContext.md

    • Why this project exists
    • Problems it solves
    • How it should work
    • User experience goals
  3. activeContext.md

    • Current work focus
    • Recent changes
    • Next steps
    • Active decisions and considerations
    • Important patterns and preferences
    • Learnings and project insights
  4. systemPatterns.md

    • System architecture
    • Key technical decisions
    • Design patterns in use
    • Component relationships
    • Critical implementation paths
  5. techContext.md

    • Technologies used
    • Development setup
    • Technical constraints
    • Dependencies
    • Tool usage patterns
  6. progress.md

    • What works
    • What's left to build
    • Current status
    • Known issues
    • Evolution of project decisions

Additional Context

Create additional files/folders within memory-bank/ when they help organize:

  • Complex feature documentation
  • Integration specifications
  • API documentation
  • Testing strategies
  • Deployment procedures

Read the full file on GitHub · 211 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 · 211 lines · 1,832 tokens per session scan A 00b7069e4569

Subscribe to this mod's changes

cursorrules is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository zacfermanis/memory-banks (8 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,832 tokens to every session, about $0.0092 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.