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Cursor Rule Scope

.cursor/rules/*.mdc

Scopes rule to matching files. Use **/* for global workspace scope.

When ON, Cursor injects this rule in every generation context.

Identity & Activation Rules

3 chips
Scoped domain keywords evaluated in real time
api-routescode-auditsrefactoring
Suggested Chips:

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Engineering Philosophy

Flexible & Adaptable

Architectural & Code Quality Conventions

Less rigid & configurable

Agent Behavioral Guardrails

Select active rules
Security & Trust Boundaries
Always included
  • Untrusted Content Is Data
  • Encoded Payloads
  • Least-Privilege File Access
  • Confirm Irreversible Actions
  • Secret Handling
  • Validation Failures
  • Conflicting Requests

Step-by-Step Workflow Procedures

StarCURSOR RULES
DevOps & Tooling
Cursor Rules (.mdc) Hub Directory

Terraform & OpenTofu Cursor Rules (.mdc) | Cloud Infrastructure as Code

Generate Terraform and OpenTofu Cursor rules enforcing remote state locking, provider version pinning, tag propagation, and tfsec compliance. Cloud infrastructure provisioning through AI often leads to catastrophic resource destruction, unpinned provider versions, missing remote state locks, and hardcoded plaintext credentials.

Target Path
.cursor/rules/terraform.mdc
Execution Scope
Glob pattern match
Specification Format
Frontmatter MDC (.mdc)
AI Tool Support
Cursor
02 / WHY IT HELPS

What this file changes for Terraform & OpenTofu IaC

Without it

Cloud infrastructure provisioning through AI often leads to catastrophic resource destruction, unpinned provider versions, missing remote state locks, and hardcoded plaintext credentials.

What the file tells the agent
Pin explicit version constraints for all providers and required Terraform/OpenTofu core versions (required_providers).
Store state securely in remote backends (S3 with DynamoDB state locking or GCS/Terraform Cloud); ban local terraform.tfstate.
Enforce mandatory resource tagging (Environment, Project, Owner, ManagedBy) on all provisioned cloud assets.
Never hardcode secrets, API keys, or master database passwords; inject via secure variables with sensitive = true or secret managers.
Declare explicit lifecycle { prevent_destroy = true } blocks on critical production databases and storage buckets.
03 / CODE PATTERNS

Terraform & OpenTofu IaC: code to avoid and code to write instead

Avoid
# Dangerous: Hardcoded secret, no version lock, unmanaged state
resource "aws_db_instance" "bad_db" {
  engine   = "postgres"
  password = "plaintextpassword123" # Leaked credentials in git!
}
Write instead
terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.7.0"
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.40"
    }
  }
  backend "s3" {
    bucket         = "corp-tf-state-prod"
    key            = "vpc/terraform.tfstate"
    region         = "us-east-1"
    dynamodb_table = "terraform-locks"
    encrypt        = true
  }
}

resource "aws_db_instance" "primary" {
  identifier          = "app-db-prod"
  allocated_storage   = 50
  engine              = "postgres"
  instance_class      = "db.r6g.large"
  password            = var.db_password
  skip_final_snapshot = false
  
  lifecycle {
    prevent_destroy = true
  }
}
04 / REPOSITORY PLACEMENT & 3-STEP TERMINAL INSTALLATION

How to Install Terraform & OpenTofu IaC Cursor Rules (.mdc) via Terminal

1

Step 1: Open Project Directory & Verify Target Placement

Open your terminal and navigate to your project root folder where the .cursor/rules/terraform.mdc file will reside. Ensure the file is placed at the exact path below relative to your project root so the AI engine automatically loads it:

.cursor/rules/terraform.mdc
2

Step 2: Fetch Rule File via Terminal Command

Run curl, PowerShell, or wget to stream the rule directly from the DevScratchpad raw API endpoint and write it to .cursor/rules/terraform.mdc:

Terminal One-Liner Install

Run directly in your project root to stream and write this rule file with one command.

Raw API Stream
$mkdir -p ".cursor/rules" && curl -fsSL "https://www.devscratchpad.tech/api/raw/cursor-rules/terraform-iac" -o ".cursor/rules/terraform.mdc"
3

Step 3: Check that Cursor uses it

Cursor picks up rules in .cursor/rules/ automatically. This one attaches when files matching its globs are in the request, or when you @-mention it.

05 / ROUTE DIRECTORY & CROSS-TOOLING
Format Pillar Hub

Cursor rules generator: .cursor/rules/*.mdc for your stack

Cursor Rules (.mdc): how it works, where the file goes, and every Cursor Rules preset.

/cursor-rules Directory
06 / RELATED DEVELOPER TOOLS

Tools for Terraform & OpenTofu IaC work

Browser-based utilities to test, format and inspect the code your AI tool writes. Nothing you paste is uploaded.

View all 28 tools

Live Repository & Schema Ingestion

Inspect any public or private GitHub repository, or paste SQL DDL and Prisma models directly in AI Skill Studio to auto-generate authentic rules. Zero server transmission.

Launch AI Skill Studio

Migrating from Legacy .cursorrules or CLAUDE.md?

Use the free, in-browser converter to turn one long rules file into Cursor .mdc, Claude SKILL.md or Windsurf rules.

Convert Rules Free
07 / FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Technical FAQ: Terraform & OpenTofu IaC AI Rulebooks

Does this rulebook support OpenTofu?

Yes, OpenTofu is fully compatible with standard Terraform HCL and shares identical provider pinning standards.

How does it handle secret management?

It mandates that all secret variables declare sensitive = true and prohibits hardcoded tokens in .tf source files.