Feature Request: Global Notebooks for Cross-Repository Consistency

Feature Requests
1

Cursor currently offers three levels of AI instruction:

  1. User Rules - Applied globally to every chat
    User Rules Interface
    User Rules Interface1458×700 15.8 KB
  2. Project Rules - Applied to specific projects
  3. Notebooks - Currently limited to the repository they’re created in

The Problem

Developers frequently work across multiple repositories that share common requirements. For example, a developer might want consistent TypeScript best practices across all TypeScript projects they work on.

Currently, there’s no elegant way to achieve this:

  • User Rules (formerly .cursorrules) are too broad, applying to ALL chats regardless of context

    • This creates confusion for the AI
    • Consumes unnecessary tokens
    • Dilutes the relevance of instructions

  • Project Rules are too narrow, requiring duplication across repositories

    • Creates maintenance overhead
    • Leads to inconsistency when rules aren’t kept in sync

The Solution: Global Notebooks

Feature Request: Global Notebooks

Current Situation

  • User Rules: Applied to every chat (replaced deprecated .cursorrules)
  • Project Rules: Applied to specific projects
  • Notebooks: Currently limited to specific repositories

Problem

When working across multiple repositories, developers need consistent instructions without:

  • Overloading User Rules (causes confusion and token waste)
  • Creating duplicate Project Rules for each repository

Proposed Solution: Global Notebooks

Make Notebooks accessible across all repositories while maintaining their powerful context-sharing capabilities.

Benefits

  • Apply specialized instructions (like TypeScript best practices) across any repository
  • Maintain clean separation between global standards and project-specific rules
  • Recall important information only when needed, reducing token usage
  • Preserve the ability to access other contexts and recall information

Implementation

Keep Notebooks as a feature but extend their scope beyond single repositories, creating a clear hierarchy:

  1. User Rules (global, always applied)
  2. Global Notebooks (available everywhere, activated on demand)
  3. Project Rules (repository-specific)

This enhancement would significantly improve workflow efficiency while maintaining Notebooks’ powerful capabilities. [1]

  1. Cursor – Notepads ↩︎

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