Background Agent Can't read github issues

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Background Agent (GitHub, Slack, Web, Linear)

Describe the Bug

Agent is unable to retrieve the contents of any github issue, despite the cursor app being installed in the correct organization and having access to all repositories. A prompt such as “review and address the first three tasks in issue #174” will attempt several methods of accessing the issue, typically curl requests and then start guessing and editing code randomly. I’m nearly certain this was working correctly previously. This applies to background agents started from cursor or cursor.com. mentioning @cursor in a github comment results in the intended behavior. I have signed out of github, removed the cursor app in github, reinstalled, with no luck. I’m also seeing the “Background agents only work in folders with a git repository.” message in the Cursor settings page for Background Agents - I can reopen the project folder as many times as I want, with no change (there’s a git repository there…)

It’s worth noting that I’m using WSL2 with the anysphere extensions in cursor to enable it.

Steps to Reproduce

Sign out of Github
Remove cursor app from github
Add cursor app to github, authorizing for the right workspace and all repos
new background agent: “try to read issue - make sure that you abort the operation, do not change any code, and report back if you’re unable to read the issue.”
Background agent tries several mechanisms, and typically reports that it must be a private repo or it doesn’t have permissions…

Expected Behavior

Agent should read the issue into context and do stuff with it…

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.5.9 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: de327274300c6f38ec9f4240d11e82c3b0660b20
Date: 2025-08-30T21:02:27.236Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

1 Like

Regarding background agents, I’m checking with the team on this.

Regarding other issues, could you please try this on the latest version?

Can you share a request ID too for the background agent? You can find it at the top right

Thanks!

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