When I have an issue with cursor following it’s rules, I generally ask it’s what’s wrong and to help me update it’s rules file so it doesn’t fumble in the future. But the problem is, cursor seems to think it’s editing the file, but the file edit is not actually written to disk. seems to happen for any file with .mdc extension.
I constantly have to copy paste what it thinks it has edited into the rules file to make the actual change. Why is this??
Hi, as far as I recall this right some users had the issue it was overwriting their file and filling it up with too much unrelated or partially conflicting info. Overall it also polluted the context. The cursor team likely prevents it for that reason. (Also i see that the structure has expanded in the last versions so that would break if the model overwrites the header part that is editable in UI like description field etc…)
ok but like why does it act like it is editing it when it is not? Hardly seems like desirable behavior. if I’m literally asking it update a file, and it acts like it is, but it does not… How is that not a bug?
So from the editing process the AI thinks its just a file. It likely doesnt know it cant do it until it tries, as is with any file.
Unless you can share the attempts the AI does I can only guess what the AI tries and how it tries it. There are technically several ways to edit files that the AI models in Agent uses. Also each AI model has slightly different behavior patterns due to its training, but also dependent on the prompt to a part.
As a user I understand your point of view. Please note that some users prefer that AI doesnt touch those files. We can assume that Cursor has to make sure those features work and dont break so most users can use them without having to constantly check why it isnt working anymore.
For me, I dont change the rules that often once they are working well.
If you are not just changing the rules but trying to store progress or similar info I would suggest following post by another user, see top there. Perhaps also as a workflow suggestion.
@brandoncollins7 Cursor’s agent is generating edits in memory but isn’t saving them to disk—likely due to permissions, file-locking, or a missing “write” command execute as administrator maybe or try to fix this, by making sure the .mdc files have proper write permissions inside your folder.
I am admin, I have put no specific locks on that folder or mdc files