Chat history fragmented under WSL — multiple workspace IDs for the same physical folder

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Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Chat history disappears from the UI on a recurring basis when working on a WSL project from Windows 11. The chats are not actually lost: agent transcripts and workspace storage data still exist on disk, but they are split across multiple workspace IDs because the same physical folder can be opened with different path representations.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. On Windows 11 with WSL2 (Ubuntu), create/open a project at /home//
  2. Open the project in Cursor using different methods across sessions:
    • Windows Explorer: \wsl$<distro><user><project-name>
    • WSL terminal: cursor . from inside the project folder
    • Optionally: vscode-remote://wsl+/home//
  3. Start one or more Agent/Chat sessions and interact normally
  4. Close Cursor and reopen the same project (possibly using a different opening method than before)
  5. Observe that previous chats are missing from the chat history sidebar

Expected Behavior

The same physical project folder should always map to a single workspace ID, regardless of how it is opened (Windows WSL path vs. WSL terminal vs. remote URI). Previous chats should remain visible and accessible in the UI.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 3.7.42 (user setup)
VS Code Extension API: 1.105.1
Commit: 5702c9cfca656d8710fad58402fe37f14345e3a0
Date: 2026-06-15T19:39:42.738Z
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
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Additional Information

Windows 11 + WSL2 (Ubuntu)

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

5

Hey, great breakdown, and you’re basically right: chats aren’t getting lost. Cursor currently derives the workspace identity from the full folder path or URI, so the same location under WSL can end up with different workspace IDs depending on how you open it:

  • Explorer \\wsl$\<distro>\... → file:// UNC path
  • cursor . from a WSL shell or Connect to WSL → vscode-remote://wsl+<distro>/...

Each of these is treated as a separate workspace, so chat history and agent transcripts in ~/.cursor/projects/ get bucketed separately. The data is still on disk.

What to do for now:

  • Open the project the same way every time. I’d recommend using WSL remote, via cursor . from a WSL shell or Connect to WSL…, and don’t mix in the \\wsl$\... UNC path from Explorer.
  • To get the chats that seem missing back, reopen the folder using the same method you used when those chats were created.

This is a known limitation in how WSL paths are currently resolved for workspace identity, not data corruption. I’ve reported it internally as a bug. I can’t share an ETA for a fix yet. If there’s an update, I’ll follow up in the thread.