Cli: User-level subagents (`~/.cursor/agents/`) not shown in completions — only project-level subagents appear

[teruhirokomaki]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor CLI

Describe the Bug

When using agent CLI, subagents defined in ~/.cursor/agents/ (user scope) do not appear in command completions. Only project-level subagents (.cursor/agents/ in the project directory) are listed. The Cursor IDE correctly shows both.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a user-level subagent at ~/.cursor/agents/user-smoke.md
2. Create a project-level subagent at .cursor/agents/project-smoke.md
3. Open Cursor IDE and type /smoke → both /project-smoke and /user-smoke appear ✓
4. Run agent in the project directory and type /smoke → only the project-level subagent appears ✗

Expected Behavior

Both user-level and project-level subagents should appear in agent completions, consistent with Cursor IDE behavior.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

About Cursor CLI

CLI Version 2026.05.09-0afadcc
Model Composer 2 Fast
Subscription Tier Pro
OS darwin (arm64)
Terminal ghostty
Shell bash
User Email

Additional Information

~/.cursor/agents/user-smoke.md (user scope — not loaded by CLI):

---
name: user-smoke
description: Smoke-test subagent for the Cursor CLI agent command. Use proactively to verify that user-level subagent settings from ~/.cursor/agents/ are loaded and applied. Performs no operations; only confirms configuration is active.
---

.cursor/agents/project-smoke.md (project scope — loaded correctly):

---
name: project-smoke
description: Smoke-test subagent for the Cursor CLI agent command. Use proactively to verify that project-level subagent settings from .cursor/agents/ are loaded and applied. Performs no operations; only confirms configuration is active.
---

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the report. The details are complete, and the repro steps are clear.

This really is a mismatch between the IDE and the CLI. The IDE picks up both scopes ~/.cursor/agents/ and .cursor/agents/, but the CLI currently only sees the project-level one. A similar issue came up before, but it reproduces again in the latest CLI version 2026.05.09-0afadcc. I filed an internal report using your steps. No fix timeline yet, but we’ll post an update here as soon as I have one.

As a temporary workaround, you can symlink the needed user-level files into the project’s .cursor/agents/ folder, or copy them there so the CLI can pick them up.