Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?
Cursor IDE
Describe the Bug
When using a reasoning model, it does not follow the rule folder structure, like .cursor/rules/frontend/rule.mdc. The model tries to list the .cursor/rules folder, finds all folders but reads 2 at most, and sometimes it loses itself and keeps grepping the files.
In the screenshot below you can see that the model calls a ton of tool actions, thinks twice and then manages to read all files.
Steps to Reproduce
Set up a folder rule structure, choose a reasoning (Auto works as well) model and tell it to read and apply ALL rules. It will call a tool for every single folder and rule.
Expected Behavior
I’ve seen that non-reasoning models are great at finding and applying rules, even those nested in folders, the expected behavior is to be similar as to non-reasoning models.
Screenshots / Screen Recordings
Operating System
Windows 10/11
Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)
Version: 1.8.0-pre.26.patch.0 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 837cff666b99546e2fc86c96abd14b1b1ace1500
Date: 2025-10-13T08:11:42.554Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100
For AI issues: which model did you use?
Auto
For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled
826f38e1-6534-48c9-be60-db49b99df1e1
Additional Information
Folder structure:
.cursor/rules/
- core/
- general.mdc
- quality-assurance.mdc
- token-optimization.mdc
- technical/
- patterns.mdc
- style.mdc
- ai-behavior/
- coding.mdc
- cot.mdc
- prompt.mdc
- prompts2.mdc
- interface.mdc
Does this stop you from using Cursor
No - Cursor works, but with this issue