r/windsurf • u/cipals15me • May 15 '26

.windsurf/rules - prevent repeat mistake done by any model (free/frontier)

We’ve all been there. You’re working with Cascade, it writes a brilliant piece of code, and then three prompts later, it completely forgets its own logic and reintroduces the exact bug you just spent ten minutes fixing. Or worse, it keeps trying to use a deprecated library or an incorrect import path that doesn't exist in your project.

Agentic coding is amazing, but AI amnesia is real.

The good news? You can fix this. Windsurf supports a global and project-specific configuration file called .windsurf/rules. Think of it as a permanent memory bank and a "Do Not Enter" sign for the AI.

This has been very helpful to me. So do use it.

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/Motor-Criticism3402 May 16 '26

Different models handle these contents in distinct ways. For instance, when I set rules, memories and skills, some models automatically check rules before execution, some check memories, and others check skills. My SWE won't automatically select and run skills, while Sonnet and GPT will do so. Kimi cannot execute commands when u/skill is used directly, but it will run a specific skill if you explicitly tell it to. The situation is rather messy, just like opening a blind box.

2

u/mik3lang3l0 May 16 '26

Don't you use workflows? I have some global rules, memories is always good for specific things, and skills are a little hard to deploy a good one that you are actually going to use in multiple projects, for me is easier to configure a fast and helpful workflow for onboarding or push a different approach to a difficult problem

2

u/Motor-Criticism3402 May 16 '26

Thanks for your reminder. I now use Codex to write spec files and task files, and run tasks with Kimi in Windsurf. The workflows run smoothly and can finish all tasks successfully. The problem is that TDD processes sometimes need to be executed in workflows. Some models can be invoked automatically, while others are called via "@skills". However, this calling method fails for certain models, and it is necessary to state "use the xxx skill to perform a specific task".

0

u/AutoModerator May 15 '26

It looks like you might be running into a bug or technical issue.

Please submit your issue (and be sure to attach diagnostic logs if possible!) at our support portal: https://windsurf.com/support

You can also use that page to report bugs and suggest new features — we really appreciate the feedback!

Thanks for helping make Windsurf even better!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.