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madhu kiran
madhu kiran

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Organizing Cursor Rules & Commands Across Projects with Symlinks

#ai #productivity #tooling

The Challenge

Working with Cursor AI across multiple projects, I wanted to:

  • Share custom AI rules that work well for my workflow
  • Reuse common commands and tools configurations
  • Experiment with different prompt templates without committing them
  • Keep project-specific customizations separate from team configurations
  • Maintain consistency across all my development work

The problem? I didn't want these personal configurations committed to version control, but I also didn't want to maintain separate copies in each project.

My Solution: Centralized Cursor Configuration

I created a central directory for all my Cursor configurations:

~/cursor-config/
├── rules/
│   ├── base-rules.md              # Base AI behavior rules
│   ├── java-rules.md              # Java-specific rules
│   ├── react-rules.md             # React-specific rules
│   └── solid-principles.md        # SOLID design principles
├── commands/
│   ├── github-pr-review.md        # PR review commands
│   ├── test-helpers.md            # Testing utilities
│   ├── refactor-patterns.md       # Refactoring templates
│   └── code-analysis.md           # Code analysis prompts
└── tools/
    ├── project-setup.sh           # Project initialization scripts
    ├── sync-dependencies.sh       # Dependency sync utilities
    └── code-formatters.json       # Formatting configurations
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Symlinking Per Project

For each project, I symlink only the relevant files. Here's how I set up different types of projects:

Java Project :

cd ~/work/backend-app1

# Link base rules
ln -s ~/cursor-config/.cursor ./
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React/Frontend Project:

cd ~/work/backend-app2

# Link base rules
ln -s ~/cursor-config/.cursor ./
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Gitignore Configuration

In each project's .gitignore:

# Cursor AI - personal configs not to commit (symlinked from central config)
.cursor
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This way, team-shared Cursor configurations stay in the repo, while my personal ones (symlinked) remain local and don't get committed.

Why This Works Brilliantly

  1. Single source of truth: Update a rule or command once, all projects benefit immediately
  2. Experiment freely: Test new AI instructions without cluttering repos
  3. Context-aware: Cursor automatically discovers and uses these files
  4. Mix and match: Combine base rules with project-specific customizations
  5. Team-friendly: Personal preferences don't interfere with committed team configs
  6. Zero maintenance: No copying, no syncing, no outdated versions

Benefits I've Experienced

  • Organized structure: .cursor/rules, .cursor/commands, .cursor/tools keep everything categorized
  • Faster onboarding: New projects get my full Cursor setup in seconds
  • Consistent AI behavior: Same quality assistance across all codebases
  • Easy iteration: Refine prompts based on what works, propagate instantly
  • Clean repos: Personal tooling doesn't pollute project history
  • Flexibility: Different projects can use different combinations of rules/commands/tools
  • Discoverability: Clear directory structure makes it obvious what's available

How to Set This Up

  1. **Create your central config directory

  2. Create your base rules / commands / tools:

  3. Create symlinks to your central config:

  4. Add symlinked files to .gitignore:

  5. Repeat for all your projects!

The Bottom Line

Symlinks turned my scattered Cursor configurations into a coherent, maintainable system. One source of truth, infinite flexibility, zero overhead.

The .cursor/rules, .cursor/commands, and .cursor/tools structure provides:

  • Clear separation of concerns: Rules for AI behavior, commands for reusable prompts, tools for automation scripts
  • Easy navigation: Anyone (including future you) can quickly find what they need
  • Scalability: Add new rules, commands, or tools without cluttering the project root
  • Team compatibility: Team-committed configs and personal symlinked configs coexist peacefully

Sometimes the simplest Unix tools are still the most powerful ones. Who knew a 50-year-old feature would be the perfect solution for organizing AI coding assistant configurations?

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