Auto mode doesn't pay attention to rules

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Often times when i’m using Auto or Composer 2 it doesn’t listen to my rules. I have rule like this

---
description: Do not add comments unless the user explicitly asks for them.
alwaysApply: true
---

# No unrequested comments

Do not add `//`, `///`, or `/* */` comments, XML doc blocks, or inline explanatory remarks unless the user explicitly requests documentation or comments in that change.

Existing comments in a file may be left as-is unless the task is to edit or remove them.

And it will go ahead and generate me code like

/// <summary>Output size for <see cref="MovieModePawn"/> high-res screenshots (Take Picture binding).</summary>
public enum MovieModeScreenshotResolution
{
	/// <summary>1920×1080</summary>
	FullHD1080p,
	/// <summary>3840×2160</summary>
	UltraHD4K
}

Steps to Reproduce

I’m just using Auto or Composer 2 Fast

Expected Behavior

I would expect rules to be followed. Either from .cursor/rules or AGENTS.md but alas neither are listened to.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.6.22 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: c6285feaba0ad62603f7c22e72f0a170dc8415a0
Date: 2026-03-27T15:59:31.561Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Auto, Composer 2

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

5

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue. We’ve seen a few similar messages from users, and the team is aware.

Right now there are two possible cases: either the rules are not being loaded into the agent context at all, which is a bug, or they are loaded but the model does not follow them, which is an LLM behavior. Negative rules like “don’t do X” are usually followed worse than positive ones.

To figure out which one it is, I need two things:

  1. Next time the model ignores a rule, copy the Request ID and send it here. You can get it via chat menu in the top right > Copy Request ID.
  2. Before you send your request, check the Active Rules tooltip in chat. Do you see your rule listed there? If it’s not listed, it’s a rule loading bug. If it is listed, the model is just not following the instruction.

One more question: are you opening the project via a normal local path like C:\Projects\... or via a network or UNC path like \\server\...? On Windows there’s a known bug where UNC paths can cause alwaysApply rules to be incorrectly classified as agent requestable.

Let me know what you find. It’ll help us target the fix more precisely.