Rust Skills for Cursor

A cleaned and optimized fork of ZhangHanDong/rust-skills specifically for Cursor IDE.

What is This?

A meta-cognition framework for Rust development in Cursor. Instead of giving surface-level answers, it guides the AI to trace through cognitive layers to provide domain-correct solutions.

The Problem

User: "My trading system reports E0382"
AI: "Use .clone()"  ← Surface fix, ignores domain constraints

The Solution

User: "My trading system reports E0382"

AI (with rust-skills):
├── Layer 1: E0382 = ownership error
│       ↑ Trace UP
├── Layer 3: Trading = audit trail requirement → immutable shared data
│       ↓ Trace DOWN
└── Solution: Use Arc<T>, not clone()

Installation

Step 1: Clone to Cursor Skills Directory

git clone https://github.com/AlexKVal/rust-skills-for-cursor.git ~/.cursor/skills/rust-skills

⚠️ Important: Clone directly to ~/.cursor/skills/. Symlinks are not supported—Cursor doesn't follow symlinks when discovering skills.

Step 2: Restart Cursor

Skills are discovered when Cursor starts. After cloning, restart the IDE.

Step 3: Verify Installation

1. Open Cursor Settings (Cmd+Shift+J on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows/Linux)
2. Navigate to Rules
3. Check the Skills section — rust-skills should appear there

Verify It Works

Open any Rust project in Cursor and try this test prompt:

My PagedTable needs to borrow the Pager, but I also need to pass it to BufferPool. Getting borrow conflicts.

If rust-skills is working, the response should:

• Ask "Who should own this data?" (not just "use clone")
• Analyze the design roles (Pager as I/O, BufferPool as cache, etc.)
• Suggest an ownership hierarchy based on domain context
• Reference layers or mention tracing through them

Example of a working response:

"The key insight from the ownership skill: 'Who should own this data?' — The Pager is an I/O resource. BufferPool is the caching layer. PagedTable is the record-level abstraction. Clean ownership hierarchy, no shared references needed."

If you just get "use Arc" or "add .clone()" without design reasoning, the skill may not be loaded.

What's Included

Core Framework (SKILL.md)

The main skill file contains:

• Meta-cognition framework (trace layers before answering)
• Routing logic (error → L1, design → L2, domain → L3)
• Domain awareness triggers

Layer 1 Skills (Language Mechanics)

Skill	Purpose
m01-ownership	Ownership, borrowing, lifetimes
m06-error-handling	Result, Option, thiserror, anyhow
m07-concurrency	Async, Send/Sync, threading
unsafe-checker	Unsafe code review, FFI

Layer 2 Skills (Design & Quality)

Skill	Purpose
code-review	Code smell detection, refactoring guidance

Layer 3 Skills (Domain Constraints)

Skill	Purpose
domain-fintech	Audit trails, decimal precision, immutability
domain-web	Async handlers, state management, axum patterns
domain-cli	Clap, exit codes, stdout/stderr conventions
domain-embedded	no_std, heapless, interrupt safety

How It Works

1. You ask a Rust question (error, design, domain)
2. AI identifies entry layer (L1 mechanics, L2 design, L3 domain)
3. AI traces through layers to find root cause
4. AI provides domain-appropriate solution

Differences from Original

This fork is specifically optimized for Cursor IDE:

Original	This Fork
30+ skills	8 essential skills
Claude Code hooks, agents, commands	Cursor skill only
Verbose explanations	Concise, agent-optimized
Multiple platform support	Cursor-only

Cleanup Applied

1. Removed Claude Code specifics - hooks, agents, commands, plugins
2. Kept only referenced skills - 8 skills actually used
3. Optimized skill content - removed redundant info the AI already knows
4. Deleted orphan sub-files - patterns/, examples/ not referenced
5. Verified tracing intact - cross-references between skills preserved

File Structure

~/.cursor/skills/rust-skills/
├── SKILL.md                    # Entry point - meta-cognition framework
└── skills/
    ├── m01-ownership/SKILL.md  # Ownership & lifetimes
    ├── m06-error-handling/SKILL.md
    ├── m07-concurrency/SKILL.md
    ├── unsafe-checker/SKILL.md
    ├── code-review/SKILL.md    # Code smell analysis
    ├── domain-fintech/SKILL.md
    ├── domain-web/SKILL.md
    ├── domain-cli/SKILL.md
    └── domain-embedded/SKILL.md

Credits

• Original project: ZhangHanDong/rust-skills
• Meta-cognition framework concept by Zhang Han Dong

License

MIT License - see original project for details.