Remote Rule (GitHub) syncs to ~/.cursor but not to project directory

I added a Remote Rule from GitHub via Cursor Settings → Rules, Commands → Add Rule → Remote Rule (GitHub).

What happened:

  • Files were synced to ~/.cursor/projects//rules//

  • However, files are NOT synced to the actual project’s .cursor/rules/ directory

  • Project Rules section in Settings shows “No Project Rules Yet”

  • When I try to add the same remote again, it says “already exists”

Environment:

  • macOS (Darwin arm64 23.6.0)

  • Using a multi-root workspace (.code-workspace file with multiple folders)

  • Cursor Version: 2.3.29

  • VSCode Version: 1.105.1

  • Commit: 4ca9b38c6c97d4243bf0c61e51426667cb964bd0

  • Electron: 37.7.0

Expected:

Remote rules should be synced to the project directory and appear in the Project Rules list.

Actual:

Rules are synced to ~/.cursor/projects/ but not recognized or applied to the project.

Hey, thanks for the report.

This is a known issue caused by a combo of two bugs:

  1. Remote Rules from GitHub don’t apply after import: the rules get downloaded to ~/.cursor/projects/, but they don’t get integrated into the project.
  2. Multi-root workspace + rules: there’s a separate issue with rules support in multi-root workspaces.

A similar case was discussed here: Cursor 2.3.23 Not Recognizing Folder-Based Project Rules

Unfortunately, there’s no working workaround yet for remote rules in a multi-root workspace. The team is working on fixing both issues.

As a temporary option, you can try:

  • Use a single-root workspace (open one folder instead of a .code-workspace file)
  • Or manually copy the rules from ~/.cursor/projects/ into .cursor/rules/ and use the legacy .mdc format: .cursor/rules/rule-name.mdc

I’ll pass this to the team that the issue is still happening in version 2.3.29.