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Anti Overengineering

Prevent AI over-engineering by keeping changes scoped, simple, and directly tied to the user's request

Cursor rules (.mdc)Public domain (CC0)

–unranked

Install

mkdir -p .cursor/rules && curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PatrickJS/awesome-cursorrules/b044f956f021b6e8877f16781bcfc466a6a120e9/rules/anti-overengineering.mdc -o .cursor/rules/anti-overengineering.mdc

Downloads the file at commit b044f956f021 into .cursor/rules/.

To remove it later:

rm .cursor/rules/anti-overengineering.mdc

Context cost: ≈146 tokens when used.

Rules file

---
description: "Prevent AI over-engineering by keeping changes scoped, simple, and directly tied to the user's request"
globs: ["**/*"]
alwaysApply: false
---
# Anti-Over-Engineering

Only change what was asked. Simplest solution first. When unsure, ask.

Do not modify unrequested code, add abstractions without a concrete need, import unnecessary dependencies, rewrite entire files for small changes, or add error handling for impossible scenarios.

Before delivery: verify you only changed requested code, check for simpler approaches, confirm no unrequested files were touched.

Security

Scanned Nov 4, 2026 at commit b044f956f021, with Cisco's open-source skill-scanner.

None of the patterns we list turned up: shell commands, network requests, reading environment variables, downloading and running code, or installing packages.

A scan lists patterns in the code. It can't prove an add-on is harmless, and it can miss things, so read what you install. How we scan