Cursor Rules for AWS Serverless & Modern Applications

A comprehensive set of rules and best practices for the Cursor IDE to guide AI-assisted development of serverless applications, web frontends, and mobile apps.

Quick Installation

Add these rules to your existing project with a single command:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jimmypocock/cursor-rules/main/install.sh | bash

This will download and install only the necessary rule files into your project's .cursor/rules directory.

Overview

This repository contains a collection of configuration files for Cursor IDE that provides context-specific guidance to the AI assistant. These rules help ensure that all code generated by the AI follows consistent patterns, best practices, and architectural principles across your projects.

Key Components

1. Base Rules - Core development principles that apply across all projects, including coding conventions, error handling, and security best practices.

2. TypeScript Rules - Specific guidelines for TypeScript development, including type definitions, modern features, and organization patterns.

3. AWS Serverless Rules:

   • Lambda Functions - Best practices for design, performance, cold start mitigation, and error handling
   • DynamoDB - Data modeling principles, key design, query optimization, and cost efficiency
   • IAM - Security best practices, least privilege principles, and role design
   • CloudFormation/SAM - Infrastructure as code patterns and deployment practices
   • GameLift - Game server integration, matchmaking, and fleet management
   • Bedrock - Foundation model integration, prompt engineering, and agent design
   • SageMaker - ML pipeline design, model deployment, and monitoring
   • VPC - Network architecture, security, and connectivity patterns
   • EventBridge - Event-driven design, rule configuration, and integration patterns

4. Web Development Rules:

   • Next.js - App Router architecture, component design, data fetching, and performance optimization
   • React - Component patterns, hooks usage, state management, and performance optimization

5. Mobile Development Rules:

   • React Native - Project setup, component architecture, navigation, and performance optimization
   • Expo - Expo ecosystem integration, EAS services, and deployment strategies

6. Supporting Tools:

   • Installation script for easy adoption
   • GitHub workflow for automated maintenance
   • Validation tools to ensure rule quality
   • Best practice checkers to keep rules updated
   • Comprehensive documentation

Benefits of This Approach

• Comprehensive Coverage: Rules for all major aspects of modern application development
• Modularity: Each rule file focuses on a specific technology or concept
• Maintainability: Clear organization makes rules easy to update as best practices evolve
• Automation: Tools to validate and distribute rules across projects
• Knowledge Sharing: Captures expert knowledge in a format that benefits the entire team

Implementation Details

The rules follow the modern MDC (Markdown Configuration) format introduced in Cursor v0.45+, which allows:

1. Domain-specific configurations targeting specific file patterns
2. Hierarchical rule inheritance with base rules extended by more specialized ones
3. Agent-centric instructions treating the AI as a specialized coding assistant

Directory Structure

.
├── .cursor/
│   └── rules/
│       ├── base.mdc                  # Core development principles
│       ├── typescript.mdc            # TypeScript best practices
│       ├── aws-lambda.mdc            # Lambda function guidelines
│       ├── aws-dynamodb.mdc          # DynamoDB patterns and practices
│       ├── aws-iam.mdc               # IAM security best practices
│       ├── aws-sam.mdc               # SAM template configuration
│       ├── aws-cloudformation.mdc    # CloudFormation best practices
│       ├── aws-vpc.mdc               # VPC network architecture
│       ├── aws-gamelift.mdc          # GameLift integration patterns
│       ├── aws-bedrock.mdc           # Bedrock AI implementation
│       ├── aws-sagemaker.mdc         # SageMaker ML development
│       ├── aws-eventbridge.mdc       # EventBridge event-driven patterns
│       ├── nextjs.mdc                # Next.js application development
│       ├── react.mdc                 # React component patterns
│       ├── react-native.mdc          # React Native mobile development
│       └── expo.mdc                  # Expo ecosystem integration
├── .github/
│   ├── workflows/
│   │   └── cursor-rules.yml          # GitHub workflow for maintenance
│   └── scripts/
│       ├── validate-rules.js         # Rule validation script
│       ├── check-aws-best-practices.js        # Checks AWS best practices
│       ├── check-frontend-best-practices.js   # Checks frontend best practices
│       ├── check-mobile-best-practices.js     # Checks mobile best practices
│       └── package.json              # Dependencies for scripts
├── install.sh                        # Installation script
├── LICENSE                           # MIT License
└── README.md                         # This file

Installation Options

Option 1: One-Line Installation (Recommended)

The easiest way to add these rules to your project is using our installation script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jimmypocock/cursor-rules/main/install.sh | bash

This script will:

• Download only the necessary rule files
• Create a .cursor/rules directory in your project if it doesn't exist
• Copy the rules into your project
• Clean up any temporary files
• Detect your project type and provide feedback

Option 2: Manual Installation

If you prefer a manual approach:

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jimmypocock/cursor-rules.git

2. Copy the rules directory to your project:

   cp -r cursor-rules/.cursor/rules your-project/.cursor/

3. Open your project in Cursor IDE.

Customizing Rules

These rules are designed to be a starting point. You should customize them to match your team's specific needs:

1. Open any .mdc file in the .cursor/rules directory
2. Modify the rules to match your specific requirements
3. Save the file and Cursor will immediately use the updated rules

Rule Types

Base Rules

The base.mdc file contains core development principles that apply to all code, regardless of technology:

• Code organization and naming conventions
• Error handling and logging
• Security principles
• Performance optimization
• Documentation standards

Technology-Specific Rules

Other files contain rules tailored to specific technologies, such as:

• aws-lambda.mdc - Lambda function design and implementation
• aws-dynamodb.mdc - DynamoDB data modeling and access patterns
• nextjs.mdc - Next.js application architecture and components
• react-native.mdc - React Native mobile development

Recommended Attachment Modes

For optimal AI guidance and performance, we recommend configuring these rules with specific attachment modes in Cursor IDE:

Setting Up Attachment Modes

1. Open Cursor IDE
2. Go to Settings > Rules
3. Find each rule file and set its attachment mode as recommended below

Recommended Configuration

Rule Type	Recommended Mode	Explanation
Core Rules	Always	These fundamental rules should apply to all development
base.mdc	Always	Core development principles apply universally
readme-documentation.mdc	Always	Documentation standards should be consistent throughout
Technology-Specific Rules	Auto Attached or Agent Requested	These should only activate when relevant
AWS service rules	Auto Attached or Agent Requested	Provides AWS guidance only when working with related files
Web/mobile rules	Auto Attached or Agent Requested	Offers framework-specific advice when in relevant files

This configuration ensures:

• Consistent Standards: Core best practices are always applied
• Contextual Guidance: Specialized rules appear only when relevant
• Reduced Noise: You won't get AWS advice when working on frontend code
• Better Performance: Reduces context size by only including pertinent rules

To manually override these settings for a specific interaction, you can use the Rules dropdown menu in the chat interface.

Team Collaboration

For teams, we recommend:

1. Centralize Rules - Maintain rules in a dedicated repository
2. Review Process - Establish a process for reviewing and updating rules
3. Automation - Use the included GitHub workflow to sync rules across projects
4. Documentation - Document why certain rules exist to build understanding

Validation Tools

This repository includes tools to validate and maintain your cursor rules:

1. Rule Validator: Ensures all rule files follow the correct format

   cd .github/scripts
   npm install
   node validate-rules.js

2. Best Practice Checkers: Scripts to check for updates to best practices

   node check-aws-best-practices.js
   node check-frontend-best-practices.js
   node check-mobile-best-practices.js

GitHub Integration

The included GitHub workflow automates:

1. Validation: Ensures all rules follow the correct format
2. Distribution: Syncs rules to other repositories you maintain
3. Updates: Checks for new best practices and creates issues

Compatibility

• Cursor IDE v0.45 or later (supports MDC format)
• Earlier versions can still use the .cursorrules format (deprecated)

Contributing

We welcome contributions to improve these rules! Please submit a pull request with your suggested changes.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Cursor IDE team for creating a fantastic AI-assisted development tool
• AWS for their serverless best practices documentation
• Next.js, React, and React Native communities for their valuable guidance