When closing the Cursor IDE, (either via the X button or by killing the IDE app via the xkill command), the Cursor menu/taskbar item does not close and becomes unresponsive to close with right click + Quit.
I have to go to my OS’s (Cachy OS) task manager and send a KILL signal to its process. Additionally there is another process that stays on after I kill the menu/taskbar item, and I have to close that as well. They also consume a lot of RAM and CPU and ramp up my laptop’s fans if I do not close them manually.
Steps to Reproduce
Just open a project in the Editor window and try to close it on an Arch based distro (I am on CachyOS). I am also on Linux kernel v7.0.1.
Expected Behavior
The Cursor IDE should not spin up multiple processes, only the IDE one and when I close it, everything should, and not leave any background processes running.
Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue. The extension host and related processes sometimes ignore SIGTERM when you close the window, so the tray icon and background processes stay alive and you have to kill them manually. It’s not only on Linux, there are similar reports on macOS and Windows too:
We’ve logged the bug, but I can’t share an ETA for a fix yet.
If you can, please send the output of ps aux | grep -iE 'cursor|code' right after closing the IDE while the tray is still there. I want to confirm which processes are still running: extension host, shared process, ripgrep, or something else. That’ll help us pinpoint where the shutdown sequence gets stuck.
The problem persists. I am receiving ‘Cursor’ updates practically every three days, yet I still see active tasks in the Task Manager after closing the application. It doesn’t matter to me that they aren’t consuming memory or other computer resources; the point is that these tasks simply shouldn’t be there after the application is closed. They should be terminated, just as other applications on my computer manage to do correctly.
When will you fix this?
Time keeps passing, and you still haven’t done it…
Hey, thanks for coming back with an update. From the screenshot, I can see the same cursorsandbox processes that were in your thread earlier.
Let me split what’s expected vs what isn’t. While Cursor is running, seeing a few cursorsandbox processes is normal. The sandbox uses them for the agent’s shell commands, and they can stay alive between commands. But they shouldn’t remain after you fully quit the IDE. That’s not related to your setup.
The good news is the leftover processes are idle (almost 0% CPU, a few MiB each), so they aren’t causing harm, and it’s safe to kill them manually:
pkill -f cursorsandbox
We’re tracking the behavior where they don’t get cleaned up on exit. I can’t share an exact date yet, but I’ll post here if there’s an update. If the processes come back after pkill while Cursor is still closed, let me know, that would be a different case.
Thanks for the clarification. However, I don’t consider manually running pkill -f cursorsandbox every time I close Cursor to be an acceptable workaround.
The issue is precisely that Cursor leaves processes running after the IDE has been fully closed, and the application should clean up its own processes on exit.
I understand that the processes are currently idle and use very little CPU, but that doesn’t change the underlying bug.
Could you please provide a bug/issue ID or any way to track its progress? I’d also appreciate knowing whether a fix is planned for an upcoming release.
You’re right. The app should clean up its own processes on exit, and pkill is a temporary workaround, not a real fix. Having processes stick around after fully closing Cursor isn’t intended behavior.
On tracking, I don’t have a separate public ID you can open and follow. The best way to track progress is this thread. I’ll reply here as soon as there’s an update.
We’re tracking this and it’s on our radar. I can’t share an exact version or date yet. I don’t want to promise a release that might slip. As soon as we have something concrete, I’ll post it in the thread.
One quick check just in case. If the processes come back after pkill -f cursorsandbox while Cursor is fully closed, meaning the IDE isn’t running, let me know. That would be a different case and we should look at it separately.