Fetch Rules

Purpose

This skill emulates Cursor's rule selection behavior for AI agents.

It discovers and selects rules from:

• Project Rules (.cursor/rules/)
  • .mdc files with frontmatter (description, globs, alwaysApply)
  • .md files without frontmatter (treated as always-apply)
• AGENTS.md files (root and nested subdirectories)
• Legacy .cursorrules at repo root (deprecated but still supported)

Rule Selection Semantics

Rule Type	Selection Behavior
alwaysApply: true	Always included
Simple .md (no frontmatter)	Always included
globs: ...	Included when any candidate file matches
description: ...	Included when prompt overlaps with description keywords
No metadata (.mdc only)	Included only when explicitly referenced
AGENTS.md	Always included when in scope (directory hierarchy)

Candidate files come from --files, --use-git-diff, and file-like paths found in --prompt.

Requirements

• bash (macOS / Linux default)
• git optional (only if you use --use-git-diff)

No Python, Node, or jq required.

Usage

Run commands from this skill directory (the directory containing this SKILL.md). Do not hardcode agent install paths.

bash scripts/fetch_rules.sh --prompt "<your request>"

Optional file hints:

bash scripts/fetch_rules.sh --prompt "<request>" --files path/to/a.ts path/to/b.sql
bash scripts/fetch_rules.sh --prompt "<request>" --use-git-diff

Force-include a rule by filename:

bash scripts/fetch_rules.sh --prompt "<request>" --explicit global.mdc
bash scripts/fetch_rules.sh --prompt "<request>" --explicit react-patterns.md

Supported Formats

Format	Location	Description
.mdc	.cursor/rules/	Rules with YAML frontmatter for fine-grained control
.md	.cursor/rules/	Simple markdown rules (always applied)
AGENTS.md	Root or subdirs	Simple agent instructions (always applied in scope)
.cursorrules	Root only	Legacy format (deprecated, will be removed)

Notes

• If multiple rules share the same filename, the rule in the closest scoped directory wins (deepest scope).
• Glob matching uses bash pattern matching ([[ file == pattern ]]). Cursor-style ** works effectively as * in this matcher.
• AGENTS.md files are combined hierarchically—parent directories' instructions apply alongside more specific subdirectory instructions.