I started to use 2.5/2.6/2.7 versions. What I noticed cursor stops to follow defined rules. The AI agent is the same Chat GPT-5.2.
Steps to Reproduce
Create rules, upgrade from 2.3 to 2.5, try to implement some feature.
Expected Behavior
on 2.3 version I see that cursor follow all rules. Yes, it works more slowly 30-60 mins, it takes much tokens, but solutions worth that. On 2.5 and 2.7 versions it does faster, but it ignores my rules and finally I spent even more time. In other words Cursor requires from me more interactions with it and spent more time without achieving results I got on 2.3 version.
I hope you will create cursor version which will follow the rules as accurate as as 2.3.
Here you can see how older and newer versions implement features.
The cursor on newer versions ignores that branches should be named as feature/*.
This is the only issue I can show visually. Though is a small part of many other issues regarding rules.
Hey, thanks for the report. I can see from the screenshot that branches are being created as tmp/* instead of feature/* based on your rules.
A few things changed in how rules work between 2.3 and 2.5+. To help narrow this down, could you share:
The contents of your .cursor/rules directory, especially the rule file(s) related to branch naming. Are you using .mdc files with frontmatter like alwaysApply: true, or plain .md files?
Which Cursor version are you currently on? The version info in your report shows 2.3.21. Is that the version where it still worked, or is that your current version?
If your rules are in the older format, plain .md without frontmatter, make sure they include frontmatter with alwaysApply: true so they’re always included in context:
---
alwaysApply: true
---
your rule content here
Let me know the details above and we can dig deeper.
I have only .cursor/rules file. Nothing else here.
Ok. So format was changed, then it would be nice to warn user about that and suggest to convert it automatically using AI agent to the new format. (I suppose autoconvertion could broke something, but that is fine. At least other parts still work, instead of just turned off silently).
Eg. I suppose you can prepend by this template whole .cursor/rules file.
2.3 is the version I downgraded to and where rules are working.
so just to make sure, you have ‘rules’ file inside your ‘.cursor’ folder, is that right? if so, then i guess that is the problem why your rules are not being loaded because ‘rules’ should be the folder (subfolder of pre-mentioned ‘.cursor’ folder, inside project root) where each rule should be defined in separate .mdc file each. so for example if you have 3 rules (just example), like ‘rule-1’, ‘rule2’ and ‘this-rule’, they should all be in this format (see Dean’s comment for proper formatting):
–--
alwaysApply: true
---
your rule content here
and they should be in (each):
project_root/.cursor/rules/rule-1.mdc
project_root/.cursor/rules/rule2.mdc
project_root/.cursor/rules/this-rule.mdc
this is just an example and should be adopted per your needs/requirements.. hopefully this helps a bit
@KES Hey, yep, that’s exactly the issue. .cursor/rules should be a folder, not a file. @johnnyboi91 explained it well in the post above.
Fastest way to migrate: rename your current file, then use the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P > “New Cursor Rule”). It’ll create the folder and files in the correct format automatically.
On your point about warning users during the upgrade and offering auto-conversion, that’s valid feedback. I’ll flag it with the team.
Let me know if rules start working after the migration.
