Chat History Not Persisting Despite Settings Enabled

[Gaurav_Khurana]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Agent generated Details via Cursor:

Issue Summary

Chat history is not persisting in Cursor despite having all relevant settings enabled. Conversations disappear when Cursor is closed and reopened.

System Information

• OS: macOS 15.6.1 (Build 24G90)
• Disk Space: 232GB free (47% used) - Sufficient space available
• Cursor Settings Location: ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/User/settings.json

Current Settings

All chat history persistence settings are enabled in settings.json:

{
    "window.commandCenter": true,
    "editor.multiCursorModifier": "ctrlCmd",
    "cursor.terminal.usePreviewBox": true,
    "cursor.chat.persistHistory": true,
    "cursor.ai.persistChatHistory": true,
    "cursor.chat.saveSessions": true,
    "cursor.composer.persistHistory": true,
    "cursor.chat.enableHistory": true,
    "cursor.ai.enableHistory": true,
    "cursor.chat.history.enabled": true,
    "cursor.chat.history.persist": true,
    "cursor.ai.history.enabled": true,
    "cursor.ai.history.persist": true
}

Troubleshooting Steps Already Attempted

• Verified all chat history settings are enabled
• Added additional history persistence settings
• Confirmed sufficient disk space
• Verified workspaceStorage directory exists
• Restarted Cursor after settings changes

Storage Location Checked

• Workspace storage exists at: ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/User/workspaceStorage/
• Multiple workspace directories found, indicating storage structure is present
• SQLite database files (state.vscdb) exist in workspace directories

Additional Context

• Chat history appears to be workspace-specific (tied to folder paths)
• Issue persists across multiple workspaces
• Settings appear correct but functionality not working as expected

Request

Please investigate why chat history is not persisting despite all persistence settings being enabled. This is a critical feature for maintaining context across coding sessions.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Cursor
2. Start a chat conversation
3. Close Cursor completely
4. Reopen Cursor
5. Expected: Chat history should be available
6. Actual: Chat history is not available/persisted

Expected Behavior

Chat history should persist across restarts

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.3.29 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 4ca9b38c6c97d4243bf0c61e51426667cb964bd0
Date: 2026-01-08T00:34:49.798Z (2 days ago)
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[Colin]

Hey @Gaurav_Khurana!

Thanks for reporting.

First, to clarify: the settings you listed (like cursor.chat.persistHistory, cursor.ai.persistChatHistory, etc.) don’t exist as recognized Cursor settings, so they won’t have any effect.

To find your existing chats, open the Agent sidebar. You should see your past conversations there.

Finally, keep in mind that chat history is workspace-specific. To view past chats for a particular workspace, you’ll need to have that workspace (like my-mobile-api or try) open.