Maximum File Size for .cursorrules in Cursor IDE

Discussion
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working with Cursor IDE and setting up a .cursorrules file for our codebase. However, we have a pretty big monolith, and the rules file has the potential to become quite lengthy as we define coding standards and directory-specific configurations.

Before we go all-in, I wanted to check:

  1. Is there a maximum file size limit for the .cursorrules file?
  2. Are there any performance implications if the file becomes too large?

Would appreciate any insights or recommendations for handling a potentially large .cursorrules file.

Thanks in advance!

2

I also don’t know, can cursorrules read files that are too heavy or larger?

3

We don’t enforce any kind of file size limit for it. But if you make the file too big, the AI may miss some of the context that you have in your .cursorrules file.

The better way to do this may be to have a folder called ‘ai instructions’ where you put multiple files to the same effect as the rules file, but split up depending on the area of the code base you are working on. Then when you do an AI query you just @ the file as context.

We may have something in the works that will help you around this in the future, but this may be your best work around for now.