Agent ignores specified repo and defaults to the one configured in settings

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

When starting the agent and specifying a repo, the agent ignores the specified repo and instead defaults to the one configured in the settings. This bug has been persisting for a few weeks.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Cursor IDE
  2. Start a new Agent session
  3. Specify a different repo than the one configured in settings
  4. Observe that the agent ignores the specified repo and uses the one from settings instead

Expected Behavior

The agent should use the repo specified at the start of the session, not the one configured in the global settings.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Cursor IDE (latest version)

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

Background Agent ID: bc-b5fecbb9-d13e-4c27-a4c6-b00e10cf3086
Agent link: https://cursor.com/agents/bc-b5fecbb9-d13e-4c27-a4c6-b00e10cf3086

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

5

Hey, thanks for the report. I want to dig into it, but I can’t pull up your session using the Background Agent ID you shared. Looks like the wrong ID got copied. To figure out what happened, I need a couple details:

  1. The correct Background Agent ID for the run where the repo got switched. Open that run on cursor.com/agents and copy the ID or link from there.
  2. Where exactly you’re starting the agent: via the Agents Window in the IDE, via a Cloud Agent, on the web, or in regular chat? These are different surfaces, and repo selection can behave differently.
  3. Your exact Cursor version. Check Cursor > About or Settings, not just “latest”.
  4. If you can, a short screencast showing how you pick the repo at start and which repo actually launches.

With that, I can compare the repo you selected with the one that actually got used and see where the selection is getting lost. Send the info here and we’ll continue.

6

@deanrie I am using the agents in Linear!

  1. I copied the request link, and it’s the same one! You can see in the prompt I specified the repo, but it picked the other one

2. Cloud Agent that got tagged in Linear

  1. Since it’s web I assume the latest
  2. See below

image
image2916Ă—1612 319 KB

image
image1226Ă—716 39.5 KB

7

Thanks, that makes it clear now. This is a known limitation of the Linear integration.

When the agent is launched from Linear via @cursor, the repo is picked from the default repo in the Cursor dashboard, plus any repo tags you’ve set up. A repo name mentioned as plain text in the comment, like “implement this in replifyPhone!”, isn’t parsed and won’t switch the repo. That’s why the agent went to the default heylibby/HeyLibbyAmplify instead of replifyPhone.

Workaround is to specify the repo explicitly using the [repo=…] syntax in the comment:

@Cursor [repo=owner/replifyPhone] implement this

Replace owner with your GitHub owner. If the short owner/name format doesn’t work, try the full URL: [repo=https://github.com/owner/replifyPhone].

We’ve reported the issue that free text repo mentions don’t work and it’s being tracked internally, but I can’t share an ETA for a fix. If there’s an update, I’ll reply in the thread.

8

@deanrie thanks!

I tried this too, but I didn’t specify it in the brackets, now it works like this! Game changer, thank you! Can’t wait to use it to speed up things!

10

Glad it worked. Thanks for coming back with an update.

One note for next time: if you mention a repo as plain text in a Linear comment, the agent won’t parse it. It’ll use the default repo from the dashboard. So using [repo=owner/name] (or the full URL if the short format doesn’t work) is the most reliable way to explicitly point to the right repository.