User Rules in Cursor Settings Not Working

[p.iwaneczko.nvidia (Pawel Iwaneczko)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

For some time, the User Rules in Cursor Settings have stopped working. The issue began after one of the Cursor updates, though I didn’t note the exact version at the time because I assumed it would be fixed in a subsequent update. However, the problem persists.

I have the following rules added to the list:

# Commit Message Format

When generating commit messages, follow these requirements:

1. **Title Line**: Maximum 48 characters, no trailing dot
2. **Body**: Wrap text at 72 characters
3. **Footer**: Always include the following lines at the end:

Fixes JIRA https://jirasw.nvidia.com/browse/DGXOPENBMC-XXXXX   
Signed-off-by: Paweł Iwaneczko [email protected]

**Note**: Replace XXXXX with the actual JIRA ticket number.

These rules were working properly in previous versions. In my opinion, this is a bug in the current version of Cursor.

Environment:

Cursor Version: 1.7.54 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 5c17eb2968a37f66bc6662f48d6356a100b67be0
Date: 2025-10-21T19:07:38.476Z
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 10.0.22621

Steps to Reproduce:

Open Cursor Settings → User Rules.

Add or modify rules (e.g., commit message formatting rules above).

Attempt to generate commit messages using Cursor → rules are ignored.

Steps to Reproduce

Open Cursor Settings → User Rules.

Add or modify rules (e.g., commit message formatting rules above).

Attempt to generate commit messages using Cursor → rules are ignored.

Expected Behavior

Cursor should apply the User Rules when generating commit messages.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.7.54 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 5c17eb2968a37f66bc6662f48d6356a100b67be0
Date: 2025-10-21T19:07:38.476Z
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 10.0.22621

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the report. To clarify, User Rules have never been applied to commit message generation, this is a known limitation, not a recent bug.

Staff have confirmed this multiple times:

• The commit generator analyzes your existing git history to match the format, but it doesn’t read User Rules
• Workaround: use a custom slash command with Agent instead of the commit button. Detailed workflow: Rules not being followed in Git commit message generation - #31 by RafeSacks

This feature has been on the team’s list for a while due to high user interest. If you’re sure it worked in an earlier version, please share the version number, that would help the team.