Great Rules In, Great Results Out
An investment in writing great rules for your AI tools will be repaid many times over.
I’ve written recently about how Cursor, the AI IDE, isn’t just great for code—it’s a superb copywriting tool as well.
As part of my recent implementation of the Astro static site generator, I wanted to improve the instructions I give Cursor when I start writing a new post. What I need is a scaffolding consisting of a directory for the post, a skeleton content Markdown file, and subdirectories for related items: images, social media posts, and AI chat transcripts (in case I want to highlight an AI conversation). This process changed a bit when I migrated from Hugo to Astro and I so I updated and refined my related Cursor rule.
All I had to do was give Cursor the rule as @ context, and then make a very simple request.
Here’s the full transcript of my interaction with Cursor:
AI Conversation Transcript: Cursor
8/28/2025 at 08:25:44 CDTOK, let's scaffold a post titled "OMG Dharmesh!" of content type episode that's a commentary on the Latent Space podcast episode with Dharmesh Shah
I'll scaffold a new post for your commentary on the Latent Space podcast episode with Dharmesh Shah. Let me create the directory structure and initial MDX file based on your content authoring guidelines.
Now let me create the index.mdx file with proper frontmatter. Based on your authoring guidelines, I'll set the date to 2 hours ago and mark it as draft initially:
---
title: "OMG Dharmesh!"
contentType: "episode"
description: "My commentary on the Latent Space podcast episode with HubSpot's Dharmesh Shah"
author: "Jack Ivers"
publishDate: "2025-01-28T06:24:00-06:00"
draft: true
tags: ["ai", "hubspot", "dharmesh-shah", "latent-space"]
categories: ["AI", "Technology"]
---
import SingleImage from '~/components/ui/SingleImage.astro';
import ImageGallery from '~/components/ui/ImageGallery.astro';
## The Episode
[Latent Space podcast episode with Dharmesh Shah](link-to-episode-here)
## My Commentary
[Your commentary here]Perfect! I've successfully scaffolded your new post "OMG Dharmesh!" Here's what I've created:
Directory Structure Created:
- Content:
/src/data/content/omg-dharmesh/index.mdx - Images:
/src/assets/images/content/omg-dharmesh/(ready for any images you want to add) - Social Media:
/src/data/content/omg-dharmesh/socialposts/images/ - /src/data/content/omg-dharmesh/socialposts/linkedin/post.txt - /src/data/content/omg-dharmesh/socialposts/mastodon/post.txtThe MDX File:
- Content Type: Set to "episode" as requested
- Draft Status: Set to
draft: true(following your guidelines) - Date: Set to 2 hours ago (2025-01-28T06:24:00-06:00)
- Components: Includes the required SingleImage and ImageGallery imports
- Tags: Added relevant tags including "latent-space", "dharmesh-shah", "hubspot"
- Structure: Basic structure with placeholders for the episode link and your commentary
draft: falseThe social media directories are also ready for when you want to create LinkedIn and Mastodon versions of your post.
Note that the interaction consisted of a single, simple request, and Cursor doing all the work. That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh uh-huh …
But how did Cursor know what to do? That astro-mdx-content-authoring rules file is 287 lines long, and carefully explains everything about authoring content files within my new Astro environment, including this scaffolding process.
Creating that rules file took some work—though these days I have Claude Code write most of my Cursor rules. Still, I there was work involved in thinking through what was needed and in continuing to refine the rule as my Astro setup evolved and new ideas came to mind.
But the payback is high: a laborious process reduced to a single, simple request.
Invest in your AI rules, and thou shalt be repaid.
