Project rules not auto-applied / not shown as Active Rules (Cursor 2.6.19, Windows 11)

[Stanislav_Kostomakha]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Project rule exists in .cursor/rules and is visible in Settings and autocomplete, but it is not automatically applied (no effect on responses, not appearing in Active Rules). The rule only works if I explicitly attach it via @.cursor/rules/.mdc.

Full text of the rule (created by agent):

---
description: "Rules smoke test: append marker"
alwaysApply: true
---

# Rules Smoke Test (Non-conflicting)

For every assistant response, append this exact marker as the final line:

`<<CURSOR_PROJECT_RULE_OK>>`

Do not add spaces or extra punctuation after the marker.

Steps to Reproduce

1. On Windows 11, Cursor 2.6.19. Open workspace folder 00_cursor_own_rule.
2. Create a project rule in .cursor/rules/vacation-only-response.mdc with alwaysApply: true that appends a marker like <<CURSOR_PROJECT_RULE_OK>> to every assistant response.
3. Start a new Agent chat and ask any question (e.g. “what is current time?”).
4. Observe: marker is NOT appended, rule not shown in Active Rules tooltip.
5. Now explicitly attach the rule file in chat: @.cursor/rules/vacation-only-response.mdc.
6. Observe: the assistant starts following the rule and appends the marker.

Expected Behavior

Rule with alwaysApply: true is injected automatically into Agent context and takes effect without manual @…, and shows in Active Rules.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

00_cursor_own_rule.zip (1.23 KB)

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.6.19 (system setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 224838f96445be37e3db643a163a817c15b36060
Date: 2026-03-12T04:07:27.435Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.4.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631

For AI issues: which model did you use?

GPT-5.2, GPT-5.3

Additional Information

If i place AGENTS.md into workspace root - it does not work either. Tried to attach few test workspaces, but archives cannot be attached to the ticket.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[Colin]

Hey there!

I can reproduce this. It looks like they are being seen as “agent requestable rules” in the backend. I’m raising this with the team.

Thanks for the report! Will follow-up when I know more.

[Colin]

Quick update: I thought I had a clean repro, but it turns out I was running Windows in Parallels and opening the project via a UNC path (\\Mac\Home\Downloads\00_cursor_own_rule). In that setup I can reproduce the issue.

When I copied the same example directly onto the Windows VM and opened it from a local path, it worked correctly.

Any chance your setup might involve something similar (network/UNC-mounted workspace path)?

Also, could you try asking the agent what rules are available? If this is the same issue I hit, your project rule may show up as an agent-requestable rule instead of always applied.

[Stanislav_Kostomakha]

Hi, no it is usual location on local disk:

Notice, after agent sees rules mentioned - it is reading them and following until forget again may be after compaction. But rule does not appear in the context icon hint.