Cant open project with dot in name

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

In a project with folder name project.name the editor window would not open. The glass panel new ui did open. Attempt to open folder could not work as well.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Create a folder with dot in the name. example: testing.space
  2. Run cursor . in the folder
  3. The editor window would not open
  4. Click on Open Project
  5. Select the folder with the dot.
  6. The editor would not open as well

Expected Behavior

The editor window should open

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.0.16 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 475871d112608994deb2e3065dfb7c6b0baa0c50
Date: 2026-04-09T05:33:51.767Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. I need to confirm a couple things so I can diagnose more accurately:

  1. Is this a local project, or are you working via SSH, WSL, or Dev Containers?
  2. What’s the full path to the folder? For example /Users/username/projects/testing.space
  3. Can you open Help > Toggle Developer Tools > Console, try opening the project, and send the errors you see there?

As a temporary workaround, try renaming the folder to remove the dot, for example testing-space, and see if it opens.

Let me know on these points.

6

Hi,

  1. its a local project, no ssh wsl or dev containers.
  2. Yes /Users/username/projects/testing.space
  3. there is no developer tools to toggle when only the new ui is showing.

Yup, dash works.

7

Thanks for the details.

This looks like a bug. Cursor is probably treating a folder with a dot in its name, like testing.space, as a file instead of a directory, and that’s why it won’t open an editor window.

I’ve passed this on to the team. No ETA yet, but your report helps us prioritize it.

For now, the workaround is to use a hyphen or remove the dot from the folder name, like you already found.

Let me know if you have any other questions.