5 .cursorrules Patterns That Make Cursor Actually Reliable

5 .cursorrules Patterns That Make Cursor Actually Reliable If you're using Cursor (or VS Code with Cursor), you've probably experienced the frustration of inconsistent AI suggestions. You write a .cursorrules file, but the AI sometimes ignores it, interprets it wrong, or gives you code that violates your own conventions. The problem isn't Cursor. It's how the rules are written. After 50+ iterations on my own .cursorrules , I've identified the patterns that actually work. Here are the 5 that made the biggest difference. 1. Rule Ordering with Precedence Comments Cursor processes rules in order, and when multiple rules could apply, it picks one—often not the one you want. The fix: use comments as explicit precedence markers. // FRAMEWORK-AGNOSTIC RULES (run first) "Prioritize code readability over cleverness" , "Follow single responsibility principle for functions" , // FRAMEWORK-SPECIFIC RULES (override above) "When writing React, prefer functional components over class components" , "Wh