Deep Interpretation of Cursor Chief Designer’s 12 Golden Rules
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Cursor’s chief designer Ryo Lu posted on X yesterday, personally teaching how to use Cursor effectively. Mastering these rules will make Cursor operate as smoothly as taking off!
Proper Cursor usage = fast, clean code. Improper usage = AI spaghetti code that takes a week to fix. Original post: https://x.com/ryolu_/status/1914384195138511142
- Set 5–10 clear project rules upfront so Cursor knows your structure and constraints. Try /generate rules for existing codebases.
- Be specific in prompts. Spell out tech stack, behavior, and constraints like a mini spec.
- Work file by file; generate, test, and review in small, focused chunks.
- Write tests first, lock them, and generate code until all tests pass.
- Always review AI output and hard-fix anything that breaks, then tell Cursor to use them as examples.
- Use @ file, @ folders, @ git to scope Cursor’s attention to the right parts of your codebase.
- Keep design docs and checklists in .cursor/ so the agent has full context on next steps.
- If code is wrong, just write it yourself. Cursor learns faster from edits than explanations.
- Use chat history to iterate on old prompts without starting over.
- Choose models intentionally. Gemini for precision, Claude for breadth.