DEV Community

Vildanden
Vildanden

Posted on

Put secrets and path rules in Cursor .mdc files, not AGENTS.md

#cursor #ai #productivity #webdev

Put secrets and path rules in Cursor .mdc files, not AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md is the repo contract: stack, layout, “don’t invent APIs.” It should stay short and shared.

Path-specific rules belong in Cursor .mdc files with globs, so an agent editing app/api/** does not also rewrite your design tokens, and a UI rule never sees production secrets.

A Next.js App Router split that holds up:

  1. Root AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md — stack, folders, security defaults, “no invented endpoints.”
  2. UI rule (.mdc) — tokens, components, no drive-by restyles.
  3. API/data rule (.mdc) — validation, mutations, where env secrets never go.
  4. Routes rule (.mdc) — App Router conventions, Server Components first.

Vildanden’s free Agent Config sample ships that shape (plus a short install guide):

Brand: Vildanden. No personal founder pitch.

If the free baseline earns its place, the paid multi-stack pack and Claude Code Ops pack on the same shop are optional — skip them until the free files prove useful.

Top comments (0)