Browser Automation Off still shows pages in Glass Browser Tab via open_resource

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

With Browser Automation = Off, cursor-ide-browser is correctly absent from the agent MCP catalog, but cursor-app-control open_resource can still open URLs in the embedded Glass Browser Tab (e.g. example.com remains visible). That is not agent control (no snapshot/click/navigate), yet the UI still looks like “browser is active,” which is confusing when automation is Off.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Set Settings → Browser & Network → Browser Automation → Off
  2. Confirm agent GetMcpTools / CallMcpTool has no cursor-ide-browser
  3. Have agent call cursor-app-control open_resource with https://example.com (or any URL)
  4. Observe embedded Browser Tab still loads/shows the page

Expected Behavior

When Browser Automation is Off, embedded Browser Tab should not be driven as an automation surface. open_resource should not present a live Browser Tab that implies agent browser control is available (or docs/UI should clearly separate “view URL in Glass” from Browser Automation).

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

IDE:
Version: 3.13.21
Commit: 55434bd8062ece6fee083b82beed2aee42d253f0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.5.0
Brave is system browser.

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Cursor Grok 4.5

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

N/A — failure is MCP routing / Browser Automation wiring, not a model completion error.

Additional Information

Related:

Related UX confusion with Browser Tab vs external Chrome:

Does this stop you from using Cursor?

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

Follow-up: sanitized logs + session IDs

Data sharing is on. Logs below are for the same investigation window as this report (Browser Automation Off still leaves Glass Browser Tab pages via cursor-app-control open_resource).

Relevant IDs for this bug

  • Glass/browser viewId observed: stable-browser-session/b23abea01bc4771017b008369920af3f (Home workspace id embedded)
  • open_resource is not agent CDP control — tabs still appear in Browser Tab UI when Automation is Off
  • Browser Automation output logs from wb58/wb59/wb64 attached

Session / identity (data sharing on)

  • machineId: 45f9fb3f-e7a9-4793-a235-3a7bb93e4e3f
  • Cursor: 3.13.21 (55434bd8062ece6fee083b82beed2aee42d253f0) Darwin arm64
  • Log session folder: ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/logs/20260727T152911/
  • Home/empty-window workspaceId: b23abea01bc4771017b008369920af3f
  • Project workspaceId (writers): c63b395f862a583cf684909c2973e535
  • empty-window composerId: d174e224-0460-47e0-9ea0-763af6aa41df
  • jsolly-website composerId: 5acf3d63-e855-475f-80d3-765ec4494774
  • Sample requestIds (wb62 / this chat): ea519e6d-beca-48ec-a1cc-0f2014441f94, 39c62806-5a07-4e7b-a817-a2f6b664a5c8
  • Sample requestIds (wb58 / empty-window): 01ecc7d9-bae9-4492-839d-1da5719701eb, 5f3e45fc-f834-4f42-8e83-2e74cb80e63f, a85646b1-270f-459a-9cda-acc3b8fa91e0

Attachments (sanitized)

00-SESSION-IDS.txt
03-wb58-Browser-Automation.log
03-wb59-Browser-Automation.log
03-wb64-Browser-Automation.log
01-empty-window-wb58-McpFileSystemWriter-b23abe.log
cursor-browser-bugs-logs-sanitized.zip

Siblings: 166850 (catalog vs runtime), 166855 (system Brave fallback), 166856 (cross-workspace tabs).

Hey!

This is actually expected behavior, though the UX critique is fair and worth flagging.

Browser Automation (Off / Browser Tab) only gates the agent’s browser control tools (snapshot, click, navigate). It’s what removes the cursor-ide-browser server from the MCP catalog when set to Off, which you already confirmed. It doesn’t gate the Browser Tab as a viewing surface. cursor-app-control’s open_resource is a separate path with its own two toggles:

  • Show Localhost Links in Browser (on by default): routes localhost URLs to the Browser Tab
  • Open Web Links in Browser (off by default, only shown in Glass): routes all http/https URLs to the Browser Tab

For example.com to be landing in your Browser Tab, the second one is currently on. Turn both off in Settings → Browser (same section as the Browser Automation dropdown), and open_resource will route through Brave instead. That’s exactly the behavior you’re describing as expected.

Moving this into Feature Requests so it counts as a signal for that work. The ask (“Off should also gate the viewing surface, or the UI/docs should make the split obvious”) is really a UX/gating request rather than a broken behavior.

Fair!