Flask Cursor Rules Template

---
description: "Application Factory"
alwaysApply: false
---
- Use the application factory pattern (create_app()).
- Use      spaces for indentation.
- Use snake_case for variables and functions.
- Use Blueprints for modular route organization.
- Register extensions in create_app() with init_app() pattern.
- Use app.config.from_object() and from_envvar() for configuration.

---
description: "Routes & Views"
alwaysApply: false
---
- Use @bp.route() decorators within Blueprints.
- Use type hints for route parameters (<int:id>, <uuid:id>).
- Use request.get_json() for JSON request bodies.
- Return proper HTTP status codes for all responses.
- Use jsonify() or return dictionaries for JSON responses.
- Use url_for() for generating URLs — never hardcode paths.

---
description: "Error Handling"
alwaysApply: false
---
- Use @bp.errorhandler() for route-level error handling.
- Use @app.errorhandler() for application-level error handlers.
- Define custom exception classes with appropriate HTTP status codes.
- Use abort() with status codes for expected error scenarios.
- Log errors with traceback information in production.
- Return structured JSON error responses for API endpoints.

---
description: "Database & ORM"
alwaysApply: false
---
- Use SQLAlchemy with Flask-SQLAlchemy extension.
- Define models with explicit column types and constraints.
- Use db.session for transaction management.
- Use Alembic for database migrations (Flask-Migrate).
- Use lazy loading for relationships — eager load with joinedload() when needed.
- Use connection pooling with appropriate pool_size and max_overflow.