A .cursorrules that actually fits your stack.
Want my full Cursor rules, not just the scaffold?
The Senior Dev Cursor Rules pack is the full set of rules I run in production: review tone, commit style, refactor heuristics, test coverage rules, and a hardened system prompt. $7, one-time, MIT-licensed.
Get the rules pack
Most .cursorrules files in real repos were copied from a
blog post in 2024, never updated, and contain three lines that
contradict the actual code style of the repo. The same goes for
AGENTS.md for Claude Code and the system prompt people
paste into ChatGPT.
The fix is not "write a better blog post." The fix is to scaffold a starter that's opinionated about your stack, ships in five seconds, and has the parts you can keep or delete clearly labelled.
cursor-rules-init
is a free MIT CLI that does exactly this. One command, one stack
argument, and you have a working .cursorrules tuned for
the language and framework you're using.
One command
npx cursor-rules-init react
npx cursor-rules-init typescript
npx cursor-rules-init nextjs
npx cursor-rules-init python
npx cursor-rules-init node-serverEach stack picks a different opinionated baseline. The TypeScript one knows about strict mode, the React one knows about hooks rules, the Python one knows about type hints and the venv conventions, the node-server one knows about request handlers and async error propagation.
The file is sectioned: identity, stack assumptions, code style, file layout, things to avoid, things to do. Delete the sections that don't match your codebase.
Why a CLI and not a template repo
Template repos go stale. A CLI gets updated and the next
npx run pulls the latest opinion. If a section turns out
to be wrong (e.g. a Cursor model behaviour change), the next minor
release fixes it for everyone.
The CLI also writes the file directly, so there is no clone / copy / rename step. The repo stays clean.
What it does NOT do
- It does not analyse your existing code. The starter is opinionated, not adaptive.
- It does not overwrite an existing
.cursorrules. It refuses unless you pass--force. - It does not include rules for tools you didn't ask for.
The deeper version
For a system prompt that produces senior-developer-quality output across any stack - not just a starter file - the Senior Dev System Prompt is the playbook. It's the multi-page rule set the free CLI templates draw from, with the model-tuning notes the CLI omits ($3, one-time).
Try it
npx cursor-rules-init typescriptSource on GitHub.