Environment
- Cursor version: [fill in]
- macOS 27.0.1
What happened I wanted to check whether I had accidentally archived some projects. The sidebar showed one project (“Investments”) with a box-shaped icon. I could not tell if that icon meant “archived” or was just the default project icon. Archived projects disappear from the list without a trace, so the sidebar gave me no sign that anything was hidden.
Problems
- The Archived option is hard to find. It sits behind a small funnel icon whose tooltip says “Customize Sidebar,” a label that doesn’t mention archive or filter. Forum replies from Cursor staff describe several paths that depend on the version: the funnel menu, a standalone archive icon, Filter by > Status > Archived, or a collapsed Archived section at the bottom of the list. Users can’t know which one their build has.
- The name collides with another panel. A separate “Customize” button opens the Plugins/Skills/MCP panel. At least one forum user opened that one while looking for archived chats.
- Archiving leaves no sign behind. When a project or chat is archived, the sidebar shows no count, badge, or placeholder. A user who archives by accident sees their work vanish and assumes it was deleted.
- The Archived view is ambiguous. When the filter is on, the list switches to archived items only, but the sidebar looks almost the same. Nothing clearly shows that a filter is active, and the box icon doesn’t clearly show whether a row is archived.
- Accidental archiving is easy. In the Agents Window,
Cmd+Shift+Earchives the current chat. In the editor, the same shortcut opens Explorer. “Archive All” in the “…” menu has no confirmation step I could find.
Suggested fixes
- Show an “Archived (N)” entry at the bottom of the Projects and chat lists that opens the archived view.
- Rename the funnel tooltip to “Filter (Archived, Status)” or similar.
- While the Archived filter is on, show a banner such as “Showing archived items. Show active.”
- Use one distinct icon or label for archived rows, separate from the default project icon.
- After any archive action, show a toast with an Undo button, and add a confirmation step to “Archive All.”
- Pick one location for Archived across all builds and document it on the Projects docs page.