Cursor AI rules for Java

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Motivation

Modern Java IDEs, such as Cursor AI, provide ways to customize how the Agent model behaves using reusable and scoped instructions. In cursor, the way to do it is named Cursor rule and you could see it as a System prompt if you use a generic term. This repository provides a collection of Cursor rules designed for Java development.

What is a System prompt?

A system prompt is a set of instructions given to an AI model that defines how it should behave, what role it should take on, and what guidelines it should follow when responding to users. Think of it as the "operating manual" that shapes the AI's personality, capabilities, and boundaries.

Further information

How to use the Cursor rules?

Using the Cursor rules is straightforward: simply drag and drop the cursor rule that you need into the chat textbox where you are typing your User prompt.

⚠️ Currently, the cursor rules are released with the manual scope on purpose by design to mitigate potential negative performance impact in communications with The Cursor platform.

Cursor Rules

Build system rules (Maven)

Cursor Rule	Description	Prompt	Notes
110-java-maven-best-practices	Analyze your pom.xml and apply Maven best practices	Prompt: Help me to review the pom.xml following the best practices for dependency management and directory structure use the cursor rule @110-java-maven-best-practices Note: Add in the context the pom.xml which you want to generate the documentation.	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer.
111-java-maven-deps-and-plugins	Update your pom.xml with Maven Dependencies & Plugins	Prompt: Can you improve the pom.xml using the cursor rule @111-java-maven-deps-and-plugins Note: Add in the context the pom.xml which you want to generate the documentation.	Using a Conversational approach, the Software engineer will interact with the cursor rule to update the pom.xml.
112-java-maven-documentation	Create a Maven Documentation with the file README-DEV.md	Prompt: Generate developer documentation with essential Maven commands using @112-java-maven-documentation Note: Add in the context the pom.xml which you want to generate the documentation.	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer.

Design rules

Cursor Rule	Description	Prompt	Notes
121-java-object-oriented-design	Take another point of view with an Object Oriented Design of your development	Prompt: Review my code for object-oriented design using the cursor rule @121-java-object-oriented-design Note: Add in the context a package to improve the design.	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer. It is an interesting prompt to see what alternatives offer the model for your package.
122-java-type-design	Review the Type Design in your development	Prompt: Help me improve my type design using the cursor rule @122-java-type-design Note: Add in the context a package to improve the design.	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer. It is an interesting prompt to see what alternatives offer the model for your package.

Coding rules

Cursor Rule	Description	Prompt	Notes
123-java-general-guidelines	Apply general purpose Java guidelines	Prompt: Review my code for general Java best practices using the cursor rule @123-java-general-guidelines Note: Add a package in the context.	Non conversational cursor rule.
124-java-secure-coding	Review your coide with Secure Java Coding rules	Prompt: Check my code for security issues using the cursor rule @124-java-secure-coding Note: Add a package in the context.	Non conversational cursor rule.
125-java-concurrency	Improve your code with Concurrency rules	Prompt: Review my code for concurrency best practices using the cursor rule @125-java-concurrency Note: Add a class or package which consider that it could bye improved by the cursor rule.	Non conversational cursor rule.
126-java-logging	Apply logging guidelines in your development	Prompt: Help me improve logging using the cursor rule @126-java-logging Note: Add a class or package which consider that it could bye improved by the cursor rule.	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer.

Testing rules

Cursor Rule	Description	Prompt	Notes
131-java-unit-testing	Apply Unit Testing best practices	Prompt: Can improve the unit tests using the cursor rule @131-java-unit-testing Note: Add a class or package which consider that it could bye improved by the cursor rule.	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer.

Refactoring rules

Cursor Rule	Description	Prompt	Notes
141-java-refactoring-with-modern-features	Add Modern Java Features in your development	Prompt: Refactor my code to use modern Java features using the cursor rule @141-java-refactoring-with-modern-features Note: Add a class or package which consider that it could bye improved by the cursor rule.	Non conversational cursor rule.
142-java-functional-programming	Add Functional Programming style in your development	Prompt: Refactor my code to use functional programming using the cursor rule @142-java-functional-programming Note: Add a class or package which consider that it could bye improved by the cursor rule.	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer.
143-java-data-oriented-programming	Add Data Oriented Programmin in your development	Prompt: Refactor my code to use data oriented programming using the cursor rule @143-java-data-oriented-programming Note: Add a class or package which consider that it could bye improved by the cursor rule.	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer.

Performance rule (Jmeter)

Activity	Description	Prompt	Notes
151-java-performance-jmeter	Run a peformance test with Jmeter	Prompt: Add JMeter performance testing to this project using @151-java-performance-jmeter.mdc Note: You could ask the model to create a JMeter based on a RestController/Resource. Example: Can you create a Jmeter file based on the restcontroller in the path src/test/resources/jmeter/load-test.jmx?	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer. If you create a Jmeter file with the model, review the generation, sometimes it is necessary to hammer a bit.

Profiling rules (Async profiler)

Activity	Description	Prompt	Notes
161-java-profiling-detect	Profile your development in runtime and collect evidences to be analyzed later.	Prompt: My Java application has performance issues - help me set up comprehensive profiling process using @161-java-profiling-detect.mdc and use the location YOUR-DEVELOPMENT/profiler Note: Replace YOUR-DEVELOPMENT with your actual development path. Example: examples/spring-boot-memory-leak-demo/profiler	Non conversational cursor rule. The Cursor rule will generate 2 scripts. One script designed to run your development with the right JVM flags for profiling and the second scripts will ask few questions about what problem do you want to solve/analyze over one particular PID.
162-java-profiling-analyze	Analyze results from previous step and generate reports with the analysis results.	Prompt: Analyze the results located in YOUR-DEVELOPMENT/profiler and use the cursor rule @162-java-profiling-analyze Note: Replace YOUR-DEVELOPMENT with your actual development path. Example: examples/spring-boot-memory-leak-demo/profiler	Non conversational cursor rule.
-	Code Refactoring from suggestions from analysis	Can you apply the solutions from @profiling-solutions-yyyymmdd.md in @/info to mitigate bottlenecks	Make a refactoring with the notes from the analysis
164-java-profiling-compare	Compare results comparing results before and after applying changes in the code	Prompt: Review if the problems was solved with last refactoring using the reports located in @/results with the cursor rule 154-java-profiling-compare.mdc Note: Put in the context the folder with the results	This cursor rule is applied automatically without any interaction with the Software engineer.

Getting started

If you are interested in getting the benefits from these cursor rules, you can manually download this repository and copy the './cursor' folder and paste it into your repository, or delegate this task to a specific command-line tool based on Jbang:

sdk install jbang
# Add cursor rules for Java in ./cursor/rules
jbang --fresh setup@jabrena init --cursor https://github.com/jabrena/cursor-rules-java

Once you have installed the cursor rules:

Phase	Role	Cursor Rule	Description
Getting Started	All	Create Java Development Guide	Cursor rule designed to help the user when using the whole set of cursor rules for Java in an easy way

Type the following prompt in the cursor chat:

Create an java development guide using the cursor rule @100-java-checklist-guide

Changelog

• Review the CHANGELOG for further details

Examples

The rules was tested with the following examples:

• General: Maven Java project
• Microservices: Spring Boot application
• Microservices: Spring Boot application with Memory leaks
• Microservices: Spring Boot application with Performance Bottleneck
• Microservices: Spring Boot application with JMeter Load Testing
• Microservices: Quarkus application
• Serverless: AWS Lambda
• Serverless: Azure Function

Java JEPS from Java 8

Java use JEPS as the vehicle to describe the new features to be added in the language. The repository review in a continuous way what JEPS could be improved any of the cursor rules present in this repository.

• JEPS List

What is the structure of a Cursor rule?

Review the template for details.

Contribute

If you have new ideas to improve any of the current Cursor rules or add a new one, please fork the repo and send a PR.

References

• https://www.cursor.com/
• https://docs.cursor.com/context/rules
• https://docs.cursor.com/context/@-symbols/@-cursor-rules
• https://openjdk.org/jeps/0

Cursor rules ecosystem

• https://github.com/jabrena/101-cursor
• https://github.com/jabrena/cursor-rules-methodology
• https://github.com/jabrena/cursor-rules-agile
• https://github.com/jabrena/cursor-rules-java
• https://github.com/jabrena/cursor-rules-spring-boot
• https://github.com/jabrena/cursor-rules-examples
• https://github.com/jabrena/cursor-rules-sandbox
• https://github.com/jabrena/plantuml-to-png-cli
• https://github.com/jabrena/setup-cli
• https://github.com/jabrena/jbang-catalog

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