Cursor Maxxing

Cursor-native setup for people who already live in the IDE. Not a Claude Code pack.

A few on-demand skills, a few knobs, a few short priors. Nothing that wraps something Cursor already ships.

Start here

1. Install the plugin — Customize → Plugins → Import marketplace, paste GitHub Troy-LL/Cursor-Maxxing. Or open this repo in Cursor and the project .cursor/ loads with no marketplace step.
2. Type /cursormax.
3. Type anything else from the table below when you need a specific workflow.

/cursormax two ways

You type	What happens
/cursormax alone	Orients the agent to this pack. Fine. No job required.
/cursormax plus a job	Takes the paste (messy and meta prompts are fine), strips fluff, names the Cursor native, then works or asks one fork.

Catalog: .cursor-plugin/marketplace.json (what Customize import reads). Plugin: .cursor-plugin/plugin.json. Publish with cursor.com/marketplace/publish.

Do not npx a Claude pack to get these files. Do not copy .cursor/ by hand unless you cannot install plugins.

What you type

Type this	What it does
/cursormax	Alone: orient. With a paste: intake the job and name the Cursor native
/sdd	Product docs: README, AGENTS.md, architecture, design, eval, one ADR
/sdd-eng	Implement a behavior change against that map
/grill	Frontier interview. /grill docs then /sdd
/deepen	List deepening candidates, wait, grill the pick
/thermonuclear	In-session adversarial review and loop auditor
/verify	Definition-of-Done gate before the turn ends
/pre-flight	Build, secret, and deployment audit before you ship
/evals	Scaffold hybrid evals, distill incident traces
/blueprint	Kickoff interview: complexity tier, language choice, model plan per tier
/voice	plain | ste | off
/keep, /after-compact	Park a keep-alive, rehydrate after a compact

Product docs are /sdd. Implementation is /sdd-eng. Both ship in this pack, adopted from Troy-LL/troysdd (see .cursor/skills/sdd/UPSTREAM.md). You do not need a second plugin for them. If you already installed the troysdd plugin, turn one of them off so /sdd is not doubled.

Also on board: write-skill (author a skill — model-invoked), and the priors in .cursor/rules/ — yagni-bias is always on at ~40 words, while @yagni, tdd, and @blast-radius are opt-in.

Why it looks like this

Three decisions do most of the work.

• Native first. Claude Code packs add graph indexes, memory, session files, routers, and overnight loops because that host needs them. Cursor already searches, remembers, routes, checkpoints, and compacts. Codegraph went out for that reason. A new add has to name a gap the IDE does not cover. → 001
• First-shot correctness, not token golf. Efficiency here means getting it right on the first attempt. → 002
• Workflow, not stack. We do not know what you are building and do not need to. Everything works the same on a Rust CLI, a Next.js SaaS, or a data pipeline. Stack guides and framework integrations stay out. → 003

What we deliberately leave out — if Cursor ships it, we do not wrap it

If it assumes your stack, it belongs in your project rules instead.

Leave out	Cursor already ships / Where it belongs
Graph indexes, codegraph, extra grep	Instant Grep, embeddings, Explore
Session or memory plugins	Chat resume, rules, Automation Memories
Auto-routers / named-agent orchestrators	Task, /create-subagent, Plan/Ask/Debug, best-of-n
Hook frameworks, hook observability dashboards	hooks.json, /create-hook
Checkpoint / rewind wrappers	Agent checkpoints, /rewind
ccusage-style cost CLIs	Usage dashboard, statusline token %
Caveman / rtk compact packs	Product compact, /summarize
Output-style plugins	User Rules, Agent/Plan/Ask/Debug modes
Statusline theme packs	cli-config.json statusLine
Permission MCP / safety-net plugins	Auto-review, permissions.json, sandbox
Worktree desktop managers	/worktree, /best-of-n, git worktree
Review-agent packs	Bugbot, Security Review
Ralph overnight loops	/loop, Cloud Agents, Automations
A second skill marketplace	Plugins, skills.sh, cursor.directory
Rule-authoring playbooks	/create-rule, Customize → Rules
Slash-command authoring playbooks	/commands, Customize → Commands
Browser / Playwright verify MCP	Native Browser
Canvas / design-to-code taste packs	/canvas, Design Mode
Plan / /autoplan wrappers	Plan mode
PR babysit loops	/babysit
Stack skills, framework guides, service integrations	App-specific .cursor/rules/, cursor-directory
Rewrites of battle-tested community skills	Adopt verbatim with upstream attribution (003); /sdd is the troysdd adopt

What an MDC is — and when to write one

An .mdc in .cursor/rules/ is a constraint injected into Agent context. It is not a skill, not a slash command, not AGENTS.md, and not a User Rule.

Cursor's rules docs give four attach modes. Pick one. The frontmatter is the mode.

Mode	Frontmatter	When it loads
Always	alwaysApply: true	Every chat. Globs and description ignored. Expensive.
Files	alwaysApply: false plus globs	Matching files are in context. Default for stack conventions.
Intelligent	alwaysApply: false plus description, no globs	Agent pulls it when the description matches the task.
Manual	alwaysApply: false, no globs, no description	Only when you @rule-name.

Official bar: keep them short, one concern, concrete examples or @ a file instead of pasting it. Add a rule when Agent makes the same mistake repeatedly. Do not copy a style guide the linter already owns. Do not document npm and git. Plain .md in .cursor/rules/ is ignored. Use AGENTS.md if you want unscoped markdown.

Write one when

• The fact is project-specific and Agent will violate it without a prompt
• It belongs on a glob (**/*.tsx, src/api/**) or on @ mention
• It is not already in README, AGENTS.md, User Rules, or a shipped skill

Do not write one when

• /create-rule or Customize → Rules is the authoring UI (do not wrap that)
• The text is routing (AGENTS.md) or personal voice (User Rules)
• The text is a workflow (skill) or a user-invoked / (command)
• The text is a hard stop (beforeShellExecution hook). Rules do not block git reset --hard
• You want it in every chat and it already lives in README. Point at the file.

This guidebook ships only the priors in .cursor/rules/. When an app needs a stack convention, type /create-rule or add it in Customize. Reach for an existing one before writing from scratch:

npx cursor-directory rules add <slug-or-url>

Skills: skills.sh / npx skills. Use write-skill when the add is a workflow, not a constraint. Do not install a Claude pack to get a marketplace.