Cursor project context refers to the persistent instructions 📝Cursor supplies to its Agent: project rules, user rules, team rules and AGENTS.md files, all documented on Cursor's Rules page.
Cursor's documentation states that "Rules provide system-level instructions to Agent." Project rules are "stored in .cursor/rules, version-controlled and scoped to your codebase," as .mdc files. Each rule is a markdown file with frontmatter metadata, and its type sets whether it applies to every chat session, when Agent judges it relevant from its description, when a file matches a pattern, or only when @-mentioned in chat.
User rules are global preferences defined in Customize → Rules that apply across all projects. Team rules are managed from the Cursor dashboard and are available on Team and Enterprise plans. Cursor merges all applicable rules in the order Team Rules → Project Rules → User Rules, and earlier sources take precedence when guidance conflicts.
📝AGENTS.md is the plain alternative: Cursor describes it as "a simple markdown file for defining agent instructions," without metadata, placed in the project root or in any subdirectory. Instructions from nested AGENTS.md files combine with those of parent directories, with more specific instructions taking precedence. Beyond these files, a 📝MythOS library connected to Cursor through the 📝Model Context Protocol can load project-context memos into a session.