How to Backup and Restore Cursor Settings Between Computers

What Cursor Settings You Need to Back Up

Cursor stores your AI coding configuration in several places:

• .cursorrules — Project-level AI rules that tell Cursor how to write code for this project
• .cursor/ — Project-level settings directory
• ~/.cursor/ — Global Cursor settings, extensions, keybindings
• settings.json — Your editor preferences (themes, fonts, formatting)
• keybindings.json — Custom keyboard shortcuts

The most painful thing to lose is your .cursorrules files. These represent hours of iteration on how AI should write code for each of your projects. Losing them means starting from scratch with a generic AI that doesn't know your patterns.

The Manual Way (Don't Do This)

You could manually copy these files between machines. But there are problems:

• You have to remember which files to copy (and where they are on each OS)
• Paths differ between Mac, Windows, and Linux
• You need to track .cursorrules across every project individually
• No version history — if you overwrite something, it's gone

The Cursor forum has hundreds of threads asking for built-in settings sync. It doesn't exist yet. memoir fills this gap.

The Better Way: memoir

memoir automatically detects Cursor settings and backs them up alongside 10 other AI tools.

Install

npm install -g memoir-cli

First-time setup

memoir init

Choose GitHub (free) or memoir cloud (Pro) as your storage provider.

Back up your Cursor settings

memoir push

memoir finds your .cursorrules, Cursor settings, keybindings, and rules across all your projects. Everything gets backed up in one command.

See what was detected

memoir status

Shows which AI tools memoir found on your machine, including Cursor, and lists the files it will sync.

Restore on a new computer

# On the new machine:
npm install -g memoir-cli
memoir init
memoir restore

Every .cursorrules file goes back to the right project. Global settings are restored. You're coding again in under a minute.

Sync Only Cursor (Skip Other Tools)

If you only want to sync Cursor settings and skip other AI tools:

memoir push --only cursor
memoir restore --only cursor

Keep Cursor + Claude + Copilot in Sync

Most developers use multiple AI tools. memoir syncs all of them together:

• Cursor (.cursorrules, settings, keybindings)
• Claude Code (CLAUDE.md, ~/.claude/)
• GitHub Copilot (.github/copilot-instructions.md)
• Plus 8 more tools

You can even translate your Cursor rules to Claude format:

memoir migrate --from cursor --to claude

Separate Work and Personal Settings

Use memoir profiles to keep work and personal Cursor configs separate:

# Create a work profile
memoir profile create work

# Push work settings
memoir push --profile work

# Switch back to personal
memoir profile switch default

FAQ

Does memoir sync Cursor extensions?

memoir syncs Cursor's AI-related settings and rules. For extensions, Cursor uses the same extension format as VS Code — you can use VS Code's built-in Settings Sync for those.

What if I have .cursorrules in 50 projects?

memoir scans your filesystem and finds all of them automatically. You don't need to list them individually.

Does this work on Windows?

Yes. memoir works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Path remapping between operating systems is handled automatically.