Background Agent Terminal Tool Consistently Failing/Timing Out

Describe the Bug

Issue Summary
The Background Agent terminal tool (run_terminal_cmd) has been completely non-functional during my entire development session today. Every single terminal command results in timeouts or “no result from tool” errors, making it impossible to complete any meaningful development work.

Technical Details

  • Issue: Terminal tool consistently fails with timeouts after 900+ seconds
  • Error Pattern: “Error: no result from tool. The user likely interrupted the tool call”
  • Frequency: 100% failure rate - not a single terminal command has worked
  • Duration: Ongoing for several hours
  • Impact: Cannot access remote servers, execute commands, or complete development tasks

Business Impact
As a paying customer, this service failure has:

  1. Wasted Billable Hours: Multiple hours of paid development time lost
  2. Project Delays: Critical orchestrator-ai system testing and debugging blocked
  3. Client Impact: Unable to deliver promised development work on schedule
  4. Financial Loss: Paying for a service that is fundamentally broken

Context of Work Blocked
I was working on implementing Context Engineering cognitive tools for an AI orchestration system - complex technical work that requires reliable SSH access and command execution. The terminal tool failure has made this impossible, despite having a working technical approach and clear implementation plan.

Previous Attempts to Resolve

  • Tried basic commands like pwd, echo - all failed
  • Tested SSH key setup through file creation - other tools work fine
  • Attempted multiple connection approaches - consistent failures
  • Problem is clearly with the terminal tool infrastructure, not my setup

What I Expect

  1. Immediate Acknowledgment of this critical service issue
  2. Technical Investigation into the terminal tool infrastructure
  3. Service Credit for the unusable session time
  4. Timeline for Resolution with specific technical fixes
  5. Proactive Communication about service status and improvements

Broader Concern
This level of service unreliability raises serious questions about:

  • Platform infrastructure robustness
  • Quality assurance processes
  • Suitability for production development work
  • Value proposition for paid subscriptions

Steps to Reproduce

get agent to create and ssh or local bash commands

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

VSCode Version: 1.99.3

Additional Information

Backend agents are failing

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

1 Like

Also for me

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