How to Use Agent Skills with Cursor [Rules Coexistence Guide]

Cursor users can leverage Agent Skills too.

This article explains how to set up Agent Skills in Cursor and how to use them alongside existing Rules files.

Cursor's Agent Skills Support

Cursor 2.0 and later supports the Agent Skills standard. As of January 2026, the background agent feature is stable, making skill-based automation even more convenient.

Skill Placement

Project-Specific

Copyyour-project/
└── .cursor/
    └── skills/
        └── my-skill/
            └── SKILL.md

Global

Copy~/.cursor/
└── skills/
    └── my-skill/
        └── SKILL.md

Rules vs Agent Skills

Cursor has its own Rules files (.cursorrules). How should you choose between them and Agent Skills?

When to Use Which

Rules work best for:

• Coding style consistency (indentation, naming)
• Project-wide constraints
• Rules that should "always" apply

Agent Skills work best for:

• Specific tasks (code review, PR creation)
• Workflows you want across multiple tools
• Instructions that apply only when invoked

Example of Coexistence

Copyyour-project/
├── .cursorrules          # Always-applied rules
└── .cursor/
    └── skills/
        ├── code-review/  # Applied during review
        └── pr-template/  # Applied during PR creation

Invoking Skills

In Chat

Use skill names in Cursor's chat:

Copy@code-review Review this file

In Composer (Cmd+K)

Skills work in Composer too:

CopyUse /code-review to improve this function

Cursor 2.0 Background Agents

Combined with Cursor 2.0's background agent feature, skills enable automated tasks.

Example Use

CopyRun /code-review in the background and notify me of issues

Long reviews or analysis tasks run in the background with notifications on completion.

Sharing Skills with Claude Code/Codex

The same SKILL.md works across multiple tools.

Copy# Place skill for Cursor
mkdir -p ~/.cursor/skills/code-review
cp SKILL.md ~/.cursor/skills/code-review/

# Symlink for Claude Code
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
ln -s ~/.cursor/skills/code-review ~/.claude/skills/code-review

Now the same skill works in both Cursor and Claude Code.

Caveats

Priority Between Rules and Skills

When both Rules and Agent Skills apply, Rules generally take priority. Conflicting instructions usually follow Rules.

Tool-Specific Features

Features specific to other tools (like Claude Code subagents) won't work in Cursor. For portability, use skills that work with just the SKILL.md body.

Summary

Agent Skills work in Cursor too.

• Place in ~/.cursor/skills/
• Rules are "always applied," Skills are "applied per task"
• Combine with background agents for convenience

Browse the Skills list to find skills to try.

Related Articles

• How to Set Up Skills in Claude Code - For terminal users
• How to Use Skills with Codex CLI - For OpenAI users
• How to Use Skills with GitHub Copilot - VS Code integration
• How to Share Skills with Your Team - Share across tools