# Does Cursor Tab use 'Rules for AI' or \`.cursorrules\`?

**URL:** <https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-cursor-tab-use-rules-for-ai-or-cursorrules/39355>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [January 6, 2025, 5:49am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-cursor-tab-use-rules-for-ai-or-cursorrules/39355 "2025-01-06T05:49:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/jake/32/20459_2.png) [@jake](https://forum.cursor.com/u/jake)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 5:49am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-cursor-tab-use-rules-for-ai-or-cursorrules/39355/1 "2025-01-06T05:49:55Z")

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As per the title.

[This link](https://docs.cursor.com/context/rules-for-ai) notes “This custom instruction will be included for features such as Cursor Chat and Ctrl/⌘ K.”

Just wondering if Cursor Tab also uses this as context.

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**Author:** ![deanrie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/deanrie/32/1263_2.png) [@deanrie](https://forum.cursor.com/u/deanrie)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 10:11am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-cursor-tab-use-rules-for-ai-or-cursorrules/39355/2 "2025-01-06T10:11:31Z")

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Hey, no, the rules only work for Chat and Composer. This is because Tab is an extremely fast model, and adding the Rules for AI would make it much slower!

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**Author:** ![jake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/jake/32/20459_2.png) [@jake](https://forum.cursor.com/u/jake)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 11:20am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-cursor-tab-use-rules-for-ai-or-cursorrules/39355/3 "2025-01-06T11:20:56Z")

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Easy, thank you for confirming deanrie.

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**Author:** ![hssrrw](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/hssrrw/32/45866_2.png) [@hssrrw](https://forum.cursor.com/u/hssrrw)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 6:02am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-cursor-tab-use-rules-for-ai-or-cursorrules/39355/4 "2025-04-10T06:02:58Z")

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I wonder if there are any plans to add Tab customization at all. In out project, it constantly tries to fight with the Prettier formatting by suggesting JUST formatting changes. Looks like a possible area for improvement.

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**Author:** ![sizhang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/sizhang/32/10343_2.png) [@sizhang](https://forum.cursor.com/u/sizhang)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 11:17am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-cursor-tab-use-rules-for-ai-or-cursorrules/39355/5 "2025-04-10T11:17:08Z")

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@deanrie

In my opinion, the core edge of Cursor is the tab completion and related customized model. The agent, any other competitors could have because they all can access the model from OpenAI or Claude. I don’t use too much of the agent, and I really can’t tell huge difference between the Cursor and other tools with the agent functionality.

I really hope you guys can realize this and spent more energies on the tab completion. That would be great.

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**Author:** ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/system/32/99069_2.png) [@system](https://forum.cursor.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2026, 10:48am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-cursor-tab-use-rules-for-ai-or-cursorrules/39355/6 "2026-06-18T10:48:26Z")

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Closed on June 18, 2026, 10:48am UTC