# Project Rules Confusion **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [February 14, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/project-rules-confusion/51055 "2025-02-14T18:52:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MonkeyCrumbs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/monkeycrumbs/32/14266_2.png) [@MonkeyCrumbs](https://forum.cursor.com/u/MonkeyCrumbs)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/project-rules-confusion/51055/1 "2025-02-14T18:52:32Z")
Okay, so I’ve read the official docs on Cursor’s site and I’m still quite confused about Project Rules. Here are my questions: 1. Are project rules brought into context using agent mode automatically based on globs and/or descriptions? Or does the model have to specifically fetch the rules and read them first? 2. If they have to be fetched, is the model fetching them based off of the description, the rule content, or the globs? Which takes precedence over the other? ---
**Author:** ![condor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/condor/32/73148_2.png) [@condor](https://forum.cursor.com/u/condor)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 7:07pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/project-rules-confusion/51055/2 "2025-02-14T19:07:34Z")
based on descriptions 🙂 the glob is just for making sure it does apply only to file types you want. e.g. if you have frontend and backend files you do not want to mix in one rule. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyCrumbs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/monkeycrumbs/32/14266_2.png) [@MonkeyCrumbs](https://forum.cursor.com/u/MonkeyCrumbs)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/project-rules-confusion/51055/3 "2025-02-14T19:10:29Z")
Okay and are they automatically brought into context or do they have to be manually fetched, for example, if using agent mode? ---
**Author:** ![condor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/condor/32/73148_2.png) [@condor](https://forum.cursor.com/u/condor)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 7:15pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/project-rules-confusion/51055/4 "2025-02-14T19:15:35Z")
Cursor team says that the agent processing checks which rule would be applicable, but they also mention that users can reference the rule file directly. To clarify, i will ask them in the relevant thread which is now true 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![DaleLJefferson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/daleljefferson/32/20009_2.png) [@DaleLJefferson](https://forum.cursor.com/u/DaleLJefferson)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 12:02pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/project-rules-confusion/51055/5 "2025-02-15T12:02:43Z")
Confusingly sometimes it says “Let me check the rules” and they you see it load the rules then other times it seems to do it behind the scenes without acknowledging it loaded the rules but seems to be following them. I would be really useful to have everything that has been pulled into context (like the rules) visible like chat system does. ---
**Author:** ![curuba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@curuba](https://forum.cursor.com/u/curuba)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/project-rules-confusion/51055/6 "2025-03-03T20:40:48Z")
Yes I fully agree with this. Especially now that we can split rules depending on topics. The agent not piccking up the appropriate rule is the main source of hallucination for me. ---
**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, 10:31am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/project-rules-confusion/51055/7 "2026-06-18T10:31:26Z")
Closed on June 18, 2026, 10:31am UTC