Rules system is broke and a mess

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Cursor is not recognizing thought the UI the rules I created before. They continue in the same place, cursor identify even the MDC files, but gives an error is not founding the files.

Also, when I try to create a new rule, it creates a folder with the name of the rule and a file called rule.mdc inside it. After that, cursor stops to identify the file it just created.

Steps to Reproduce

Go to the settings → project rules and try to open/edit some.
Go to the settings → project rules and try to create a new one. After that, try to edit.

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.2.20 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: b3573281c4775bfc6bba466bf6563d3d498d1070
Date: 2025-12-12T06:29:26.017Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.1.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

2

Hey, thanks for the report.

This issue is actively tracked here: Project Rules: Documented RULE.md folder format not working, only undocumented .mdc format works - multiple users confirm the same behavior on 2.2.x.

Right now there’s an inconsistency with the new folder-based RULE.md format. A temporary workaround is to use the legacy .mdc files directly in .cursor/rules/.

For debugging, please share:

  • The exact .cursor/rules/ structure (show the file tree)
  • A screenshot of Settings > Rules > Project Rules
  • Whether the rules were created manually or via Settings > Rules > + Add Rule
  • Try Reload Window (CMD+Shift+P > Reload Window) and tell me if it helped

Let me know the results.