Not sure if this will land in the docs, but happy to explain here:
| Bucket | What’s in it | Your control |
|---|---|---|
| System prompt | Cursor’s built-in instructions to the model (how to behave, how to call tools, formatting) | None |
| Tools | The list of tools the model can use and how to call them | Mode (Ask / Plan / Agent etc.) sets the core toolset. A few extras like Web Search and Web Fetch can be toggled in Settings. Core tools (Read, Edit, Grep, Shell, Task…) can’t be turned off |
| Rules | Workspace and user rules that load at the start of the chat. Agent-requestable rules contribute only their description here; the body counts as Conversation if/when the agent reads it | Trim always-on rules; prefer agent-requestable rules with tight descriptions |
| Skills | The catalog of available skills (names + descriptions + paths) loaded at the start. A skill’s body only counts once the agent opens it | Same idea as Rules — fewer/tighter skill entries |
| MCP | Everything your MCP servers inject up front: their instructions and the list of tools/resources they expose. MCP tool results don’t count here, those go to Conversation | Disable MCP servers/tools you don’t need for this chat |
| Subagents | Descriptions of the subagent types you can delegate to | Register fewer subagents |
| Summarized conversation | When the chat gets long, Cursor compresses earlier turns into a summary, which lives here | Automatic or via /summarize |
| Conversation | Everything else: your messages, the agent’s replies and thinking, tool calls and their results, file contents it read, search results, images | Start a new chat, or let it summarize |