I am trying to understand why CORE Cursor functionality has not worked in several versions of Cursor, including 0.50.5. For example, I just asked the agent to review the User Rules and got this response: “I apologize, but I don’t have direct access to the specific core user rules built into the Cursor AI Settings screen that you’re referring to.” This issue continues for any files or folders referenced using the “@” symbol or dragging and dropping the file or folder into the Agent window.
Since this functionality is core to the Cursor editor, I wonder if there is any testing before releasing or if the Cursor team has simply given up. I have not posted on this issue before because I assume it is an issue for a specific release. However, we are now going through multiple releases with no resolution to issues with core functionality.
GPT-4.1 (when in auto mode) and Claude-3-7-sonnet. I went back and forth, showed it the Cursor documentation, gave it a partial screenshot showing the user rules in setup, etc. before it actually read the file. Of course, it pretty much ignored the rules but it finally did find them. I asked for instructions to give it so I could use those instructions to tell it to read the rules. It gave me those instructions. However, the next chat session also ignored those instructions. I have tried simple user rules to more detailed rules. It just refuses to see them until I badger it enough. Then it acknowledges it sees them and may or may not follow them. I think this issue started in the .49 versions and has continued into the .50 versions. I wonder if there is debug logging somewhere to see what the agent is actually doing. I would add that the gemini models is even worse as it will refuse to edit files (a different but still unacceptable issue).
Usually, creating a new chat and restarting solves the problem in such cases. You can try reinstalling Cursor, and also check out our troubleshooting guide.