Agents Window: PDF files cannot be previewed

Support Bug Reports
1

Describe the Bug

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE — Agents Window (Glass)

Describe the Bug

In the Agents Window, opening a .pdf file does not show a usable PDF preview. The file either fails to render, shows as a non-preview / binary-style view, or otherwise cannot be visually previewed inside Agents Window.

In contrast, PDF viewing/preview behavior outside Agents Window (classic Editor / system PDF viewer) works as expected for the same files.

This breaks the Agents Window workflow when agents generate or edit PDFs (reports, exports, LaTeX builds, etc.): I have to leave Agents Window and open the file elsewhere just to review the result.

Related context (not the same bug, but adjacent):

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Cursor on Windows with Agents Window as the primary surface (Glass layout).
  2. Open (or create) a workspace that contains a valid .pdf file.
  3. From Agents Window, open the PDF via file search (Ctrl+P) or by clicking the file path from an agent response / file tree.
  4. Observe that the PDF does not preview correctly inside Agents Window.
  5. Open the same PDF outside Agents Window (classic Editor, or OS default PDF viewer) and confirm the file itself is valid and viewable.

Expected Behavior

Agents Window should preview PDF files inline (readable pages), with parity to how PDFs can be viewed elsewhere in Cursor / on the OS — so agent-produced PDFs can be reviewed without leaving Agents Window.

Actual Behavior

PDF preview does not work in Agents Window (no usable rendered preview when opening .pdf files from that surface).

Operating System

Windows 11 (25H2), build 10.0.26200

Steps to Reproduce

None

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Cursor IDE: 3.12.17 (stable)

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. There’s an important detail here: PDF preview in the Agents Window isn’t supported right now. This isn’t a regression, it’s a current limitation. File tabs in the Agents Window can render text and images (png/jpg/webp, etc.), but .pdf goes through the binary path and shows “Binary file is not supported”.

On parity: in the classic Editor Window, Cursor and VS Code also don’t have native PDF rendering. You only get it via a marketplace extension (PDF viewer) or the system viewer. The Agents Window doesn’t go through the VS Code custom editor API, so those extensions don’t work there yet.

Workarounds for now:

  • Right click the file tab and choose Open in IDE. This opens the classic Editor Window, where the marketplace PDF extension can render the file.
  • Or use Reveal in Finder / Open Containing Folder and open the PDF in your system viewer.

We’ve logged a request to expand the list of supported formats in the Agents Window, but I can’t share a specific ETA for PDF yet. If there’s an update, I’ll reply in the thread.