Developing Cursor Plugins

Overview

This skill provides efficient workflows for creating Cursor plugins. Use it to make plugin development fast and correct — it synthesizes official docs into actionable steps and covers Cursor-specific patterns like .mdc rules, plugin manifests, and MCP integration.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Creating a new Cursor plugin from scratch
• Adding components to an existing plugin (rules, skills, commands, agents, hooks, MCP servers)
• Writing .cursor/rules/*.mdc rule files
• Setting up a local development environment for plugin testing
• Troubleshooting plugin structure or loading issues
• Understanding plugin architecture and component choices
• Releasing or distributing a plugin (Cursor Marketplace, cursor.directory, team marketplace)

For comprehensive official documentation, use the working-with-cursor skill to access full docs.

Quick Reference

Need to...	Read This	Official Docs
Understand directory structure	references/plugin-structure.md	plugins.md
Choose a component pattern	references/common-patterns.md	plugins.md
Write .cursor/rules/*.mdc files	references/cursor-rules-guide.md	context-rules.md
Debug plugin issues	references/troubleshooting.md	Various

Plugin Development Workflow

Phase 1: Plan

Before writing anything:

1. Define your plugin's purpose

   • What problem does it solve?
   • Who will use it — personal, team, or public?
   • Which components are needed?

2. Choose your pattern (read references/common-patterns.md)

   • Rules only (lightweight context injection)?
   • Rules + skills (guidance + reusable workflows)?
   • MCP integration (external tool access)?
   • Full-featured platform (all component types)?

3. Review installed plugins at ~/.cursor/plugins/ for examples

Phase 2: Create Structure

1. Create directories:

   mkdir -p my-plugin/.cursor-plugin
   mkdir -p my-plugin/rules my-plugin/skills my-plugin/commands
   

2. Create the manifest .cursor-plugin/plugin.json:

   {
     "name": "my-plugin",
     "version": "1.0.0",
     "description": "What this plugin does",
     "author": { "name": "Your Name" }
   }
   

3. Add components (see references/plugin-structure.md for full layout)

Phase 3: Develop

Rules (.cursor/rules/*.mdc) — unique to Cursor, read references/cursor-rules-guide.md first:

---
description: When to apply this rule (used by AI for auto-discovery)
globs: ["**/*.ts", "**/*.tsx"]
alwaysApply: false
---
# Rule content here

Skills (skills/skill-name/SKILL.md):

---
name: skill-name
description: What this skill does and when to invoke it
---
# Skill content

MCP servers (.cursor/mcp.json at plugin root):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "my-mcp-package"]
    }
  }
}

Phase 4: Test Locally

1. Link plugin for live iteration:

   ln -s $(pwd)/my-plugin ~/.cursor/plugins/local/my-plugin
   

2. Reload Cursor via Developer: Reload Window in command palette

3. Verify loading — check that rules appear, skills are discoverable, MCP tools connect

4. Test each component:

   • Rules: open a file matching the glob, confirm AI applies guidance
   • Skills: invoke via /skill-name in agent chat
   • MCP: check tool availability in agent context

Phase 5: Release

Distribution options:

• Cursor Marketplace — official, reviewed, open-source: cursor.com/marketplace/publish
• cursor.directory — community platform for plugins and MCP servers
• Team Marketplace — internal GitHub repo, configured in Cursor team settings
• Direct GitHub — users install manually via local symlink

Version bump: Update version in .cursor-plugin/plugin.json, tag the release.

Critical Rules

.cursor-plugin/ Contains ONLY the Manifest

❌ WRONG:

.cursor-plugin/
├── plugin.json
└── skills/          ← skills here

✅ CORRECT:

.cursor-plugin/
└── plugin.json      ← manifest only
skills/              ← components at plugin root

Rules Live in rules/ at Plugin Root

Rules bundled with a plugin go in rules/*.mdc at the plugin root. They are installed into .cursor/rules/ when the plugin is activated — users should NOT hand-edit the installed copies.

Use .mdc Extension for Rules

Rules in .cursor/rules/ must use the .mdc extension. Plain .md files in that directory are ignored by Cursor.