Agent mode dropdown not respected; assistant stays in Ask mode until restart

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Title: Agent mode dropdown not respected; assistant stays in Ask mode until restart

Environment

  • Cursor Desktop: 2.6.19

  • VSCode: 1.105.1

  • Build type: Stable

  • Release track: Default

  • Commit: 224838f96445be37e3db643a163a817c15b36060

  • Date: 2026-03-12T04:07:27.435Z

  • Electron: 39.4.0

  • Chromium: 142.0.7444.265

  • Node.js: 22.22.0

  • OS: Windows 10 (win32 10.0.26200)

Description The Cursor Desktop assistant appears to be stuck in Ask mode even when the desktop mode dropdown is set to Agent. Switching the dropdown to Agent doesn’t reliably take effect. Exiting Cursor Desktop and restarting usually corrects the problem (this has happened before as a workaround).

Steps to reproduce (intermittent)

  1. Open Cursor Desktop.

  2. Ensure the assistant mode dropdown is set to Agent.

  3. Attempt an operation that requires Agent tool capabilities (applying changes).

  4. Observe that the assistant still reports “Ask mode is active” and behaves read-only.

  5. Restart Cursor Desktop.

  6. Observe it now behaves as Agent mode.

Actual result

  • Assistant behaves as if Ask mode is active despite the UI showing Agent.

Expected result

  • When set to Agent, the assistant should immediately use Agent capabilities without requiring a restart.

Workaround

  • Restart Cursor Desktop.

Impact

  • Blocks normal coding workflows; interrupts agent-driven tool execution.
1 Like
2

Hi there!

We detected that this may be a bug report, so we’ve moved your post to the Bug Reports category.

To help us investigate and fix this faster, could you edit your original post to include the details from the template below?

Bug Report Template - Click to expand

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

  • Cursor IDE
  • Cursor CLI
  • Background Agent (GitHub, Slack, Web, Linear)
  • BugBot
  • Somewhere else…

Describe the Bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is.

Steps to Reproduce
How can you reproduce this bug? We have a much better chance at fixing issues if we can reproduce them!

  1. …
  2. …
  3. …

Expected Behavior
What is meant to happen here that isn’t working correctly?

Screenshots / Screen Recordings
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Operating System

  • Windows 10/11
  • MacOS
  • Linux

Version Information

  • For Cursor IDE: Menu → About Cursor → Copy
  • For Cursor CLI: Run agent about in your terminal
IDE:
Version: 2.xx.x
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: ......

CLI:
CLI Version 2026.01.17-d239e66

For AI issues: which model did you use?
Model name (e.g., Sonnet 4, Tab…)

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled
Request ID: f9a7046a-279b-47e5-ab48-6e8dc12daba1
For Background Agent issues, also post the ID: bc-…

Additional Information
Add any other context about the problem here.

Does this stop you from using Cursor?

  • Yes - Cursor is unusable
  • Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor
  • No - Cursor works, but with this issue

The more details you provide, the easier it is for us to reproduce and fix the issue. Thanks!

4

I confirm the same bug, windows version 2.6.20: agent is stuck in Ask Mode even though the dropdown says “Agent”. This happens if you go in “Ask mode”, ask a question, then switch to “Agent mode” and ask the AI to apply the suggestions in the conversation.

AI replies it cannot do the change because it thinks it’s still in Ask Mode.
AI suggests to ask it directly “change to agent mode” (see capture) and this works.

image
image470Ă—320 14 KB

5

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