Chat thinks it's in Ask mode when it's actually in Agent mode, refuses to edit files

[AlteriusOmega]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I have chat set to Agent mode (using GPT-5) and it behaves like it’s in Ask mode. It won’t edit files, it tells me to copy and paste code into them. I have repeatedly told it that it is in Agent mode and that it should edit the files themselves but it won’t. It even flat out told me it was in Ask mode and told me to switch it to Agent mode

Steps to Reproduce

Start Cursor chat, ask question in Ask mode, then switch back to Agent mode and prompt it to edit files

Expected Behavior

When in Agent mode it should edit the files directly, not print out code and ask the user to copy and paste it

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.7.46
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: b9e5948c1ad20443a5cecba6b84a3c9b99d62580
Date: 2025-10-14T01:21:46.830Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

GPT-5

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the report. It looks like a bug where the chat keeps the Ask mode context even after switching to Agent mode.

Quick question: if you start a completely new chat (instead of switching modes mid-conversation), does Agent mode work correctly?

In the meantime, if you haven’t tried it yet, the workaround is to start a fresh chat when you need Agent mode rather than switching modes during a conversation.

Let me know if the new chat approach works, if this is still broken even in new chats, I’ll escalate it to the team to investigate.