Windsurf AI Prompts & Configuration Guide

Windsurf (formerly Codeium) is an AI-native code editor that combines intelligent autocomplete with Cascade, its agentic coding assistant. Like Cursor, Windsurf reads project-level configuration to understand your codebase, but it uses its own rules format and has a distinct workflow built around multi-step task execution. Getting the most out of Windsurf means understanding how to structure your rules files and write prompts that leverage Cascade's ability to plan and execute across multiple files.

Windsurf supports global rules (applied to all projects) and project-specific rules that live in your repository. These rules tell Cascade about your preferred frameworks, coding style, file organization, and testing requirements. A well-configured rules file means Cascade generates code that matches your existing codebase from the first interaction. Windsurf also supports MCP (Model Context Protocol), which means you can connect external tools -- like your PromptingBox prompt library -- directly into your development environment.

When prompting Cascade, be explicit about scope and expected behavior. Instead of "add authentication," try "add email/password authentication using NextAuth.js with a PostgreSQL adapter, matching the patterns in src/lib/auth." Cascade works best when it has clear context about what you want and where it should look. Browse our configuration templates and coding prompts to set up Windsurf for your stack.