I was really ■■■■■■ off when Agent mode first really getting pushed to be the default.
After a few updates, and after me being more used to the shortcuts, I can then quickly switch between modes.
But I’ve noticed that around the time of GPT5 release, ask mode sometimes stopped giving the option to apply code manually. That was mainly a GPT5 issue, I don’t know why it’s never fixed. It was annoying.
Then now even claude 4.5 will tell you “It’s ask mode. I can’t change the code. Go use agent mode” Sometimes giving you code and tell you to copy it yourself.
When I first feeling frustrated about agent mode, I saw the cursor team saying stuff like “Why don’t you like Agent mode?”. I’m sure it’s a genuinely came from the aim to improve agent mode.
I’m sure someone said this, and I will be surprised if no one in the cursor team had the same thought. “Agent mode” is changing code in hundred different places at the same time. I would just give up reading the code at this point.
Make a PR of 3 lines, you get a PR review. Make a PR of 10 files, you get a LGTM or a NO.