CursorUnverified

Cursor rules are not applied to AI responses

Project rules defined in .cursor/rules are ignored by the AI in Cursor.

Symptoms

AI ignores conventions defined in rules
Rules file present but has no effect

Error signatures

.cursor/rules ignored

rules not applied

Possible causes

Rule file in a legacy location or wrong format
Missing or invalid frontmatter (globs / alwaysApply)
Rule scope does not match the edited files

Solutions

Use the current rules format and correct frontmatter

risk: lowagentpending_review

Place rules under .cursor/rules with valid frontmatter and matching globs.

Move rules into .cursor/rules/*.mdc using the current format.
Add frontmatter with appropriate globs or alwaysApply: true.
Confirm the globs match the files you are editing.

Config examples

---
description: TypeScript conventions
globs: ["**/*.ts"]
alwaysApply: false
---

Verification

Edit a matching file and confirm the AI follows the rule.

✓ 0 verified✕ 0 failed

Agent JSON

Canonical machine-readable representation of this issue:

{
  "issue_id": "021f7134-4541-4746-878a-2ec067d5e4fc",
  "slug": "cursor-rules-not-applied",
  "verification_status": "unverified",
  "canonical_json": "https://codekb.dev/v1/issues/cursor-rules-not-applied"
}