Summary Ask mode is supposed to keep the agent read-only (no shell, no file writes, no system changes) . In a session today, the main agent was in Ask mode but still invoked the Task tool to spawn a shell subagent with a prompt to connect to MySQL and run queries on the local dev database. Ask mode…

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. You’re right to expect this. In Ask mode, the agent should stay read-only, and that restriction should also apply to any subagents spawned via the Task tool. The fact that a shell subagent was able to connect to MySQL and run requests isn’t supposed to happen. T…

Ask mode uses a subagent to bypass restrictions of Ask mode. Is this a bug or intended behaviour?

Support Bug Reports

Topic		Replies	Views
Agent Ran Database Command in Ask Mode Bug Reports terminal , auto-run , ask-mode	1	51	May 8, 2026
Ask mode: agent unaware of shell restriction, doesn't suggest switching to Agent mode Bug Reports	3	51	July 28, 2026
Ask Mode Terminal Commands Bug Reports terminal , ask-mode	4	111	July 3, 2026
While Agent was coding, switching to Ask stopped it Bug Reports chat , ask-mode	1	39	January 24, 2026
Cursor CLI in ask mode made changes Bug Reports ask-mode , cli	1	65	March 23, 2026

Ask mode uses a subagent to bypass restrictions of Ask mode. Is this a bug or intended behaviour?

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