Conversation Hygiene, Ignore Files and Privacy

Done means you can reset context deliberately and avoid treating ignore files as a security boundary.

Better answers come from smaller, explicit context: files, docs, terminal output and evidence.

Use Conversation context and privacy controls when a chat is long, stale, sensitive or beginning to make repeated mistakes. Keep the boundary narrow.

Start small. Name the job, attach the context that proves the point and decide what evidence would make the output trustworthy.

Read the loop before touching the controls. The first beat frames the work, the second uses Cursor, the third checks the result and the fourth leaves a handoff someone else can inspect.

Treat this as a short practice loop, not a product tour. The task should be small enough that you can inspect the result without trusting the summary.

1. 1Continue the chat only while the task and context remain the same.
2. 2Summarize or start fresh when the model repeats mistakes or the goal changes.
3. 3Use ignore files for context hygiene and indexing exclusions.
4. 4Check enterprise privacy controls for actual data-handling guarantees.

The exercise is complete only when the proof matches the requested outcome. If the proof is weak, reduce the scope or fix the context instead of adding more instructions.

Verification decides the next move.

Use the first failure signal as the next prompt. Broad retries usually make the run noisier; a narrow retry gives Cursor a concrete repair target.