Hi @Kian_Lutke
Thanks for the detailed report. This isn’t a bug, but the error messaging is definitely misleading, so I understand the confusion.
The --pool option requires a Service Account API key, not a regular Team API Key. These are different key types with different permission scopes:
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Team API Keys (what you generated) have administrative permissions but can’t authenticate pool workers
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Service Account API keys have the specific scope needed for agent pool workers
Service Accounts are currently available on Enterprise plans. You can find more details here: Service Accounts
Another user reported the same confusion here: Cursor Self Hosted Agents and Team Plan / Worker Pool — the team is working on expanding availability.
In the meantime, you can still run a self-hosted worker without --pool using your personal login credentials (agent login first, then agent worker start). This registers it as an individual worker rather than a team-shared pool, but it does work on the Team plan.