Your .cursorrules file is probably not working the way you think it is.
Not because Cursor is broken — but because most .cursorrules setups make the same five mistakes. Here is what they are and how to fix them.
Mistake 1: One file, everything in it
The most common .cursorrules antipattern is the monolith: one file at the project root, 300 lines long, covering TypeScript conventions AND API auth patterns AND deployment notes AND "always write clean code."
The problem: Cursor loads this file into every context, regardless of what you are editing. When you are fixing a CSS bug, your SQL query rules are burning token budget for nothing. When context gets long, older rules get compressed out — which means your most important constraints are the ones most likely to disappear.
