Looking for Clarity on Cursors Rules vs Cursor Skills vs Claude Skills

I’ve been reading docs, blogs, and Reddit posts all day, and I still don’t feel confident that I fully understand the differences between these approaches.

My current understanding is that [**AGENTS.md**](http://AGENTS.md) and [**CLAUDE.md**](http://CLAUDE.md) are for “global rules”—guidelines that get injected into context for every prompt.

I use **Cursor**, but I’ve recently started looking into a more modular workflow like what **Claude Code** offers with **Skills**. What appeals to me about Claude Code Skills is the ability to write a dedicated file for a specific frontend component (or a backend function/API call), and have that context only loaded when it’s relevant—rather than being included every time like a global rules file.

That modular behavior is my end goal. The issue is: I don’t use Claude Code—I use Cursor—so I’m trying to figure out the most accurate way to replicate that workflow in Cursor without creating redundant systems.

A few specific questions I’m stuck on:

* Cursor Rules can be set to **“applied intelligently”** or **“applied always.”** Do those two modes effectively map to the same roles as a Cursor **Skill** (context loaded only when relevant) vs a global file like **AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md** (always loaded)?
* If that’s the case, then what’s the purpose of **Cursor Skills**—when would you use them instead of Rules?
* Is there a meaningful difference between **Cursor Skills** and **Claude Code Skills**? If so, what is it in practice?
* If I’m using **Cursor models inside Cursor**, can I just follow Cursor’s recommended file structures (e.g., how CURSOR expects Skills to be laid out) and get the same behavior in Cursor?

Sorry if this is basic—there just don’t seem to be many definitive answers, and the overlap between these systems is making it hard to figure out the cleanest “best path” forward.

To reiterate, my ultimate goal is: **.md context files that only load when they’re relevant to the task at hand—not on every prompt.**