mempalace--mempalace/examples/cursor/rules

Cursor Rules — MemPalace recall

Optional Cursor rules that make the agent search MemPalace before answering questions about past work, people, projects, or prior decisions.

These are for users who install MemPalace without the Cursor plugin (or who want recall behaviour in a specific project). If you installed the Cursor plugin, it already ships the alwaysApply: false rule at the plugin root — you do not need to copy anything.

Which file to use

File	alwaysApply	Fires when	Use when
mempalace-recall.mdc	false	Cursor's matcher decides the turn is recall-relevant (from the rule description)	Recommended. Recall without paying for the rule on unrelated work.
mempalace-recall-always.mdc	true	Every conversation in scope, every turn	You want recall guaranteed in context and accept the cost.

The always-on variant is heavier: it sits in context on every turn and makes the agent more eager to call mempalace_search, which adds MCP latency and works against MemPalace's "memory should feel instant" budget. Prefer the false variant unless you specifically want recall forced into every conversation. Pick one of the two — do not install both.

Install

User scope (every workspace) — copy into ~/.cursor/rules/:

mkdir -p ~/.cursor/rules
cp examples/cursor/rules/mempalace-recall.mdc ~/.cursor/rules/

Project scope (this repo only) — copy into .cursor/rules/:

mkdir -p .cursor/rules
cp examples/cursor/rules/mempalace-recall.mdc .cursor/rules/

For the aggressive variant, copy mempalace-recall-always.mdc instead (only one of the two). Then reload Cursor: Cmd-Shift-P → Developer: Reload Window.

How recall is delivered

Recall ships in three orthogonal layers — install any combination:

Layer	What it does	Where
sessionStart hook	Injects wing-scoped recall context once per new chat	hooks/cursor/
mempalace-recall skill	Full search-before-answer protocol, model-invoked or attached	skills/mempalace-recall/
Recall rule (these files)	Nudges search-before-answer on recall-relevant turns	here, or the plugin root rules/

All three reference the same canonical protocol in integrations/shared/recall-protocol.md.