5 Cursor Personas Your Whole Team Should Be Using (Not Just Devs)

When I first started using Cursor, I thought I just needed better prompts. What I really needed was a better perspective multiple ones, actually. I didn’t need one assistant. I needed five. That’s when I started thinking in personas.

Personas are distinct ways of configuring prompts, .cursorrules, and context scope for specific workflows. They aren't just role-based metaphors, they’re tactical, role-specific setups that reflect how different people think, prioritize, and communicate within a codebase.

They won’t solve everything. Some teams may prefer one general-purpose assistant, and switching modes mid-flow can be jarring or overkill. But if you’ve ever wished your AI could sound more like your PM or less like a code generator and more like a reviewer, you might find these useful.

Here are five Cursor personas we’ve tested that map surprisingly well to real-world team roles. That said, if you’re a solo developer or a team of two, switching between personas might feel like overhead. They tend to shine most with teams of 3-8 people, where role boundaries start to emerge but there’s still shared context. Sometimes, one flexible assistant is enough, especially when speed is the priority over process.

The Product Manager (a.k.a. The Synthesizer)

“Can you summarize this into a Jira ticket with acceptance criteria… and make it readable by a non-dev?”

Why this works: PMs need high-signal summaries, stakeholder-friendly clarity, and repeatable documentation. Cursor can take the chaos of dev threads and turn them into structured, readable briefs.

What they use Cursor for:

• Turning changelogs into stakeholder updates
• Drafting feature specs from Slack threads or PRs
• Writing acceptance criteria and outlining edge cases

Go-to prompts:

• “Summarize this PR for product/stakeholders in 2-3 concise sentences.”
• “Generate a ticket description with context, goals, and non-functional requirements.”

Cursor Setup:

• Limit context to /features/, /tickets/, and /docs/
• Emphasize summary tone and avoid technical jargon

🧩 Setting It Up as a Custom Mode: Save as .cursor/rules/pm.mdc with Always mode enabled. Or, create a Custom Mode with instructions like: “You are a senior product manager…”

The SEO Specialist (a.k.a. The Optimizer)

“Let’s make this readable by humans and findable by search engines.”

Why this works: This persona focuses on clarity, keyword alignment, and on-page structure. It helps bring AI into dev-marketing handoffs without touching code.

What they use Cursor for:

• Reviewing content for search friendliness
• Improving metadata and headings
• Generating alt text and canonical links

Go-to prompts:

• “Improve this paragraph’s readability and keyword focus on ‘affiliate platform’.”
• “Audit this HTML block for SEO gaps (meta tags, alt text, headings).”

Cursor Setup:

• Enable access to /marketing/, /public/, or /pages/
• Disable code suggestions, boost markdown and HTML fluency

🧩 Setting It Up as a Custom Mode: Create a mode with soft language output and markdown focus. Add the instruction: “You are an SEO specialist optimizing content for organic visibility.”

The Senior Developer (a.k.a. The Architect)

“This works. But does it scale? Does it belong here?”

Why this works: This persona helps flag long-term tradeoffs that juniors might miss. It’s not about style. It’s about strategy.

What they use Cursor for:

• Enforcing architecture patterns
• Reviewing PRs for structure and testability
• Flagging scope creep and premature optimization

Go-to prompts:

• “Review this approach against our event-driven architecture.”
• “Identify refactor opportunities for readability and long-term flexibility.”

Cursor Setup:

• Full access to repo with design docs as bonus context
• Enable audit-mode tone and best-practice recommendations

🧩 Setting It Up as a Custom Mode: Custom mode with rule like: “You are a senior software architect. Evaluate code for maintainability and long-term scalability.”

The Database Sage (a.k.a. The Guardian of State)

“It’s not about the query — it’s about the long-term cost of the query.”

Why this works: Query performance and schema drift are invisible until they hurt. This persona puts the brakes on shipping risky DB changes by default.

What they use Cursor for:

• Reviewing ORM queries for risk
• Validating schema decisions
• Recommending index or constraint improvements

Go-to prompts:

• “Review this SQL query for potential bottlenecks or index issues.”
• “Evaluate whether the schema supports this access pattern effectively.”

Cursor Setup:

• Narrow file context to /models/, /migrations/, /db/
• Add performance and safety guidance rules

🧩 Setting It Up as a Custom Mode: Instruction: “You are a senior database engineer. Evaluate every query for risk, indexing, and maintainability.”

The DevOps Master (a.k.a. The Risk Reducer)

“You deployed fast. But can you explain how you’d roll it back?”

Why this works: DevOps personas bring caution and control to systems that often grow in complexity without visibility. This profile helps surface risk, without blocking flow.

What they use Cursor for:

• Reviewing CI/CD pipelines and deployment scripts
• Auditing infrastructure as code
• Proposing rollback and fallback plans

Go-to prompts:

• “Audit this deployment script for insecure defaults or missing validations.”
• “Draft a rollback and recovery plan for this Terraform config.”

Cursor Setup:

• Prioritize .github/, /infra/, /deploy/ folders
• Disable Max Mode by default; log every change suggestion

🧩 Setting It Up as a Custom Mode: Setup rule to flag any destructive operations. Instruction: “You are a cautious DevOps engineer. Suggest secure and reversible approaches.”

Before and After: A Real Workflow Example (React + Analytics)

You can simulate a real team by chaining Cursor personas:

• Start with the Product Manager for planning
• Switch to Senior Dev for implementation
• Finish with DevOps or Database Sage for review

Before (Default Cursor Use): A developer receives a vague feature request. They try to generate code directly in Cursor, but it lacks context. The PR ends up needing rework because it missed product goals, SEO guidelines, and introduced a risky database query.

After (Using Personas):

• The Product Manager persona rewrites the vague request into a clear spec with edge cases.
• The SEO persona reviews copy in the component before code is merged.
• The Senior Developer persona ensures the architecture fits existing patterns.
• The Database Sage spots an N+1 query and suggests an index.
• The DevOps Master proposes a safer deployment script with rollback.

With personas, the team delivered a clearer, safer, and more performant feature:

• The PM persona clarified requirements.
• The SEO persona ensured search-friendly content.
• The Senior Dev ensured performance.
• The DB Sage flagged a slow join.
• The DevOps Master confirmed rollout safety.

Instead of a late-cycle rewrite, most of these issues were surfaced during development.

Persona Quick Reference Table

Persona	Role Traits	Primary Use	Go-To Prompt
Product Manager	Synthesizer	User stories, feature specs	“Summarize this PR in 2–3 sentences for stakeholders”
SEO Specialist	Optimizer	Content cleanup, metadata	“Audit for SEO metadata and improve keyword focus”
Senior Dev	Architect	Review, refactor, test coverage	“Evaluate code against our architectural guidelines”
Database Sage	Guardian of State	Schema, queries, indexing	“Review SQL for bottlenecks and schema fit”
DevOps Master	Risk Reducer	CI/CD, rollback planning	“Audit deployment YAML and suggest rollback plan”

A Note on Format, Modes, and Tradeoffs

Cursor’s persona system evolved:

• Old format: .cursorrules (single-file project-wide rules)
• New format: .cursor/rules/*.mdc with scoping and tool control

Use Project Rules for modular persona design.

Custom Mode vs **.cursor/rules**:

• Custom Modes are fast to toggle and great for role-switching in the moment.
• **.cursor/rules/** files offer more precision (per-folder or per-language scope), ideal for team-wide workflows.
• Use Modes when you’re experimenting. Use project rules when you want reliability.

How Long Does It Take?

Setting up your first persona takes about 5-10 minutes once you’ve defined your role’s tone and scope. You can start from a single rule file or explore presets to speed things up.

Want to Experiment Further?

These tools are optional but helpful in specific situations:

• The Cursor Rule Maker is great if you’re building multiple personas quickly or want structure out of the box.
• GitHub gists and open-source repos are useful if you’re looking to see how others structure similar personas or workflows.

You don’t need tooling to get started, just a thoughtful rule and consistent usage pattern.

What’s Your Cursor Persona?

Do you have a persona that makes Cursor click for you? Drop your setup or prompt style in the comments. I’m collecting ideas for Part 2.