If every problem looks like a prompt, you will paste the same paragraph forever. Cursor already has places for standing constraints, repeatable procedures, and one-off briefs. Use them.
Rules
Markdown with YAML frontmatter, saved as .mdc under .cursor/rules/.
A rule is for something that should shape many chats: voice, stack, “never ship lorem.” Activation is the whole game. alwaysApply: true belongs on two or three short files. Globs belong on UI craft so a schema change is not lectured about type scale.
A 2,000-line always-on rule is how you get ignored.
Skills
A folder with SKILL.md. The agent sees the name and description, then opens the rest when the task matches — or when you type /.
A skill is a procedure: audit this UI, write the next skill, brief a cloud agent. Steps, guardrails, definition of done.
If you paste the same twenty lines every Monday, it is a skill.
Prompts
A prompt is a brief you paste. No file required. Promote it when reuse starts. The first-slice prompt on this site exists because “build a platform” is how greenfield repos fill with empty rooms.
Recipes
A recipe is a named pack plus install order. Humans forget which six files belong together. The composer on cursor.beauty turns that list into a zip that lands in .cursor/rules and .cursor/skills.
What not to stuff into those files
Connecting the agent to GitHub, a database, or a browser is a tools problem (MCP). A rule will not query your tickets. A skill will not replace a server. Keep the text in front of the model short enough to apply on the next edit.