Cannot open symlinked global skill/rule in editor

Support Bug Reports
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Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I am using an ssh connection to cursor running on Linux.

In Customize → Skills I see my global skills. Some of these are symlinks to files in my workspace. When I click on one I get:

The editor could not be opened because the file was not found.

The path to the file looks correct including the symlink portion. It asks me to create the file, but when I do that it opens an empty file that seems to be different from the actual file.

Same problem with rules that are symlinked.

Steps to Reproduce

In Customize → Skills I see my global skills. Some of these are symlinks to files in my workspace. When I click on one I get:

The editor could not be opened because the file was not found.

Expected Behavior

Open the symlinked file

Operating System

Windows 10/11
Linux

Version Information

Version: 3.15.19 (user setup)
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: de07bee81cefe43461ebf4f40c3d2d78d15052a0
Date: 2026-08-11T05:22:54.627Z
Layout: IDE
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.291
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

7

Hi @Eric_Roller Thanks for the detailed report. What you’re seeing isn’t intended, and it isn’t caused by the symlink or anything in your setup. In a remote SSH window, Customize is opening global skills and rules against the local Windows machine instead of the Linux home. We’ve let the team know and this is an issue we’re tracking.

To keep you unblocked:

  1. Don’t click Create File on that prompt. It writes an empty copy on the Windows side (often under C:\home\...) that is not your real skill or rule. If you already created one, you can delete that stray Windows file.

  2. Open the file from the remote side instead. Use the remote file explorer, File → Open, or from the SSH terminal:

    cursor ~/.cursor/skills//SKILL.md

    Same idea for rules under ~/.cursor/rules.

  3. Project skills and rules in the workspace (.cursor/skills, .cursor/rules) still open correctly from Customize if you want to edit there.

You can leave the symlinks as they are. I’ll post here when there’s an update.