"ask" mode causing large amounts of billed tokens

Support Bug Reports
,
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Hello!

Cursor sometimes has trouble recognizing when it’s in “ask” mode, and tries to edit code while in it. This will cause Cursor to continually re-try the same thing over & over again, running up the token bill. Attached is a screenshot of my agent panel, and I would attach a screenshot of my billing panel, except I can only upload one screenshot.

Steps to Reproduce

Put cursor in “ask” mode & ask it a question that could be solved by editing the file. This is non-deterministic ofc, but occasionally it will get stuck in a loop.

Expected Behavior

Cursor should immediately realize it can’t edit files, and stop executing.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Screenshot 2026-02-05 at 10.08.49 AM.png
Screenshot 2026-02-05 at 10.08.49 AM.png1136×2484 480 KB

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 2.4.23 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 379934e04d2b3290cf7aefa14560f942e4212920
Date: 2026-01-29T21:24:23.350Z (6 days ago)
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.0.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

composer

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

1 Like
Agent in ask mode trying to make edits infinite loop
3

yes, i have seen this too

4

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue with Composer 1 in Ask mode. The model sometimes doesn’t realize it’s in read-only mode and tries to edit files. That can cause loops and waste tokens.

Similar cases:

The team is aware, and this should be fixed in the next model release.

Workarounds for now:

  • Switch to a different model in Ask mode, like Sonnet 4.5
  • Or explicitly remind Composer 1 in your prompt that it’s in Ask mode and shouldn’t edit files
5

Can you please comment when fixed? Was told that it would be fixed 2 fixes ago