BugBot without Background Agents?

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

BugBot

Describe the Bug

Is it possible to enable BugBot in Gitlab without background agents while on the legacy privacy mode? We disabled AutoFix, which requires background agents, but I am still seeing the following error message when trying to start a review: “Please finish setting up background agents. Go to Cursor”. We are using the Gitlab SaaS, not self hosting.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Connect Cursor to Gitlab, while in the legacy privacy mode
  2. Enable BugBot on a repo, turn off Autofix
  3. Tag BugBot on an MR to start a review, observe the error message

Expected Behavior

BugBot performs a code review of the MR

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

BugBot.png
BugBot.png1144×236 30.2 KB

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

IDE/CLI not applicable

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

6

Hi @olivertilk,

BugBot code reviews can work without background agents – they use a separate code path. The issue is with the command you used to trigger the review.

Looking at your screenshot, it appears the comment was “can you review this MR?” – BugBot requires specific command syntax to trigger a review. Try commenting one of these on the MR instead:

  • @bugbot run

  • @cursor review

The natural language phrasing gets picked up by a different handler (the background agents path), which is why you see the “finish setting up background agents” error even though you don’t need them for BugBot reviews.

Could you try using one of those exact commands and let us know if the review triggers successfully?

For reference, the BugBot docs cover the available trigger commands.

7

Hi Mohit,

Thank you, that worked!