cursor-rules-essentials

📏 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.