# No Agent-Editable Global Rules?

**URL:** <https://forum.cursor.com/t/no-agent-editable-global-rules/163450>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** rules\
**Created:** [June 17, 2026, 12:29am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/no-agent-editable-global-rules/163450 "2026-06-17T00:29:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tylercasper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/tylercasper/32/7020_2.png) [@tylercasper](https://forum.cursor.com/u/tylercasper)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 12:29am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/no-agent-editable-global-rules/163450/1 "2026-06-17T00:29:14Z")

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How is it possibly the case that there is no way for an agent to update my global rules? This is crazy! Please tell me I’m missing something.

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**Author:** ![kevinn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/kevinn/32/101206_2.png) [@kevinn](https://forum.cursor.com/u/kevinn)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 12:52am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/no-agent-editable-global-rules/163450/6 "2026-06-17T00:52:02Z")

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Hey Tyler, you’re not missing a setting. The agent can edit anything that lives as a file, but your global User Rules are stored in Cursor’s settings, not on disk, so there’s no file for it to write to.

The workaround is to keep the guidance you want it to manage in files instead. Anything file-based, the agent can create and update directly:

- Project Rules (`.cursor/rules/*.mdc`) or `AGENTS.md` in your repo. Ask the agent to edit them, or run `/create-rule` in chat.
- To reuse the same rules across projects, keep them in a GitHub repo and import them with Settings \> Rules, Commands \> + Add Rule \> Remote Rule (GitHub). You maintain one source repo and each project pulls it in.

If you have concerns about these options or they don’t suit your needs, let me know, and we can think through some alternatives.

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**Author:** ![jalenz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/jalenz/32/112582_2.png) [@jalenz](https://forum.cursor.com/u/jalenz)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 4:54pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/no-agent-editable-global-rules/163450/7 "2026-06-26T16:54:44Z")

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@kevinn Hi, after updating to 3.9.8, I noticed that cursor can now read the .mdc files located in ~/.cursor/rules. I’d like to confirm whether this is a new feature rather than a bug. However, in my Context Usage Report, the global .mdc is listed under Project Rules. That seems incorrect—shouldn’t it be categorized under Cursor & User Rules?

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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:** [July 26, 2026, 4:54pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/no-agent-editable-global-rules/163450/8 "2026-07-26T16:54:49Z")

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