Support for ~/.cursor/rules for global .mdc rules

Ideas Feature Requests
1

Feature request for product/service

Cursor IDE

Describe the request

Create a rule file (.mdc) and copy it to the folder ~./cursor/rules.
use the agent to do something which is supposed to trigger the rule.

refers to: User rules are not recognized from folder ~./cursor/rules

Operating System (if it applies)

MacOS

2

This is a must to have!

3

needed

4

This was working before but now its not?

5

workaround for this until we get real home directory user rules. tested for a couple days on macOS, Cursor 3.0.13, sonnet-4.6.

  • copy the rule below to User Rules in Cursor Settings → Rules, Skills, Subagents → User
  • put your username in step 1 where called out
  • mkdir ~/.cursor/rules and put the user rules you want there as *.mdc files
    • but don’t use any yaml front matter! just assume everything will always apply
    • you can get rid of user rules in the UI as you move them into *.mdc files
  • if you’ve moved everything to ~/.cursor/rules, then yes this rule pointing there becomes your one and only UI-configured rule
  • you will see agents list and read your *.mdc user rules before doing anything else
# Read User Rules in ~/.cursor/rules

At the start of EVERY conversation, you MUST read all `.mdc` files in `~/.cursor/rules/` using the Read tool.

## Instructions

1. Use the Shell tool to list files: `ls /Users/MACOS_USERNAME_HERE/.cursor/rules/*.mdc`
   - Do NOT use the Glob tool — it does not support absolute paths outside the workspace and will silently return 0 results
2. Read EVERY file found using the Read tool — do not skip any
3. Apply all rules found immediately and for the entire session
4. If a rule conflicts with a built-in behavior, the rule in `~/.cursor/rules/` wins

## Why This Matters

The user stores important behavioral rules here. Failing to read them means ignoring explicit user preferences. This is not optional.

the best part about this setup is agents can edit these rules themselves! i could not get those dots connected with UI configured / cloud synchronized user rules.

7

Thanks for the workaround. Here is a working one for Windows environment.

[CRITICAL]

# Read User Rules in ~/.cursor/rules

At the start of EVERY conversation, you MUST read all `.md` and `.mdc` files in the user's global Cursor rules folder using the Read tool.

## Instructions

1. Use the Shell tool to list files: `Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\.cursor\rules" -Filter *.mdc -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue; Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\.cursor\rules" -Filter *.md -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue`
   - Do NOT use the Glob tool — it does not support absolute paths outside the workspace and will silently return 0 results
   - The path resolves to `C:\Users\<username>\.cursor\rules\`
2. Read EVERY file found using the Read tool — do not skip any
3. Parse and enforce YAML frontmatter exactly as Cursor would for project rules:
   - `alwaysApply: true` → apply the rule to every conversation
   - `alwaysApply: false` with `globs` → apply only when a file matching the glob pattern is open or referenced
   - `alwaysApply: false` without `globs` → treat as available context but do not force-apply
   - `description` → use to understand rule intent
4. Apply all matching rules immediately and for the entire session
5. If a rule conflicts with a built-in behavior, the rule in `~/.cursor/rules/` wins

## Why This Matters

The user stores important behavioral rules here. Failing to read them means ignoring explicit user preferences. This is not optional.
8

any update here?

9

Hey, thanks for the ping. I can’t share an exact timeline for native support of global ~/.cursor/rules yet. The request is being tracked, but there’s no ETA.

For now, there are two working options:

  1. Plugins: This is the supported way to keep file-based rules outside a specific project. Put a plugin in ~/.cursor/plugins/local/<plugin-name>/ with a rules/ folder containing your .mdc files, plus a .cursor-plugin/plugin.json manifest at the root. Then restart Cursor or run Developer: Reload Window. More details: Plugins | Cursor Docs

  2. Workaround from this thread: The solutions by @mstephenson6 (macOS, Post #5) and @Tetram (Windows, Post #7) work. A User Rule tells the agent to read ~/.cursor/rules/*.mdc via the Shell tool at the start of the session. Note that the Shell tool must be enabled or allowed in your run mode, otherwise the agent won’t load the rules.

Once there’s an update on native support, I’ll post it here.

10

Recheck 2026-08-10 (Cursor 3.15.x):

Docs still do not document a native home-dir rules loader. Official rules docs still describe:

  • Project rules: .cursor/rules in the project
  • User Rules: Customize → Rules (settings-stored text — not files under ~/.cursor/rules)
  • Team Rules / AGENTS.md

There is still no documented auto-load of ~/.cursor/rules/*.mdc comparable to how ~/.cursor/skills works.

Related:

Ask: First-class ~/.cursor/rules (parity with ~/.cursor/skills / Claude’s ~/.claude/rules) remains the desired end state for fleet symlink installers. Plugins help, but they’re not a drop-in home-dir rules loader.

11

Recheck 2026-08-21 (Cursor 3.17.8, macOS 26.5.2 arm64):

Help now documents a home-dir path that the rules reference still does not.

Help → Rules → “Where are rules stored?” now includes:

User rule files in ~/.cursor/rules (Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\rules) stay on the machine and do not sync.

Docs → Rules still describes User Rules only as Customize → Rules (account-synced text). It does not mention ~/.cursor/rules.

This contradicts my 2026-08-10 note that docs did not document a native home-dir rules loader, and also @deanrie’s 2026-07-02 note that native ~/.cursor/rules support is tracked with no ETA (plugins + User-Rule-driven file read as workarounds).

Ask: Did a native auto-load of ~/.cursor/rules/*.mdc ship (Help ahead of docs/rules), or did Help over-document a storage path that agents still do not load? First-class home-dir rules remain the desired end state for fleet symlink installers (parity with ~/.cursor/skills / Claude ~/.claude/rules).

Did not empirically prove auto-load this session.