📏 Cursor Rules Essentials

Essential Cursor Rules for Code Quality, Accessibility, and Best Practices

🚀 Quick Install

npx cursor-rules-essentials

One command installs 15 essential .mdc rules for Cursor IDE.

What are Cursor Rules?

Cursor Rules (.mdc files) are automatically enforced guidelines that help maintain code quality, accessibility, and best practices as you code. They work silently in the background, catching issues before they become problems.

📦 Rule Bundles

| Bundle | Rules | Use Case | |--------|-------|----------| | Minimal | 3 | Core quality only | | Standard | 7 | + React patterns | | Complete | 15 | All essential rules |

📋 Rules Reference

🎯 Code Quality

| Rule | Description | |------|-------------| | web-standards | Real-time code quality enforcement (component limits, hooks, styling) | | pr-quality | PR validation - max files, lines, single responsibility | | plan-first | Require implementation plan for complex multi-file changes | | yolo-mode-config | Auto-run validation without manual intervention |

⚛️ React Patterns

| Rule | Description | |------|-------------| | react-functional-patterns | Functional component syntax, hooks organization, error handling | | form-patterns | useWatch over watch(), memoize Yup schemas, OXForm wrapper | | async-effect-patterns | AbortController for async useEffect, cleanup patterns | | client-boundary | SSR/CSR boundary detection, prevent hydration mismatches |

♿ Accessibility

| Rule | Description | |------|-------------| | a11y-standards | ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, focus management |

🏗️ Architecture

| Rule | Description | |------|-------------| | auto-adr | Auto-generate Architecture Decision Records when patterns change | | refactoring-gravity | Identify high-churn files with high coupling | | z-index-governance | Enforce z-index token system to prevent z-index wars |

🤖 Automation

| Rule | Description | |------|-------------| | auto-self-heal | Auto-detect and fix common antipatterns while coding | | bundle-budget-guard | Monitor bundle size impact when adding dependencies | | visual-regression-guard | Auto-detect UI changes and require visual verification |

💡 How Rules Work

Rules are automatically applied by Cursor based on their configuration:

# Example rule header
---
description: Real-time code quality enforcement
globs: ["**/*.tsx", "**/*.ts"]
alwaysApply: true
severity: warn
---

• globs: Which files the rule applies to
• alwaysApply: Whether the rule is always active
• severity: block, warn, or info

🛠️ CLI Commands

npx cursor-rules-essentials              # Interactive install
npx cursor-rules-essentials --bundle complete -y  # Non-interactive
npx cursor-rules-essentials status       # Check installed rules
npx cursor-rules-essentials list         # List all available rules
npx cursor-rules-essentials help         # Show help

📂 Installation Structure

After installation:

.cursor/
└── rules/
    ├── a11y-standards.mdc
    ├── async-effect-patterns.mdc
    ├── auto-adr.mdc
    ├── auto-self-heal.mdc
    ├── bundle-budget-guard.mdc
    ├── client-boundary.mdc
    ├── form-patterns.mdc
    ├── plan-first.mdc
    ├── pr-quality.mdc
    ├── react-functional-patterns.mdc
    ├── refactoring-gravity.mdc
    ├── visual-regression-guard.mdc
    ├── web-standards.mdc
    ├── yolo-mode-config.mdc
    └── z-index-governance.mdc

🔄 Rule Categories

Prevention Rules (Block Bad Patterns)

• web-standards - Component size limits, hook patterns
• pr-quality - PR scope limits, single responsibility
• a11y-standards - Accessibility requirements

Detection Rules (Warn About Issues)

• refactoring-gravity - High-churn files
• bundle-budget-guard - Bundle size growth
• visual-regression-guard - UI changes

Automation Rules (Auto-Fix)

• auto-self-heal - Fix antipatterns automatically
• yolo-mode-config - Run validation without prompts

🤝 Works With

• Buddy OS - Role-aware autonomous agent
• Cursor Full-Flow - Jira to PR automation
• Cursor AI Toolkit - AI self-improvement

📄 License

MIT © Sharath Chandra

Write better code, automatically.