Cloud Agent ignored explicit “no new branch/PR” instruction and repo rule

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cloud Agent (GitHub, Slack, Web, Linear)

Describe the Bug

Cloud Agent ignored an explicit “work on existing PR # and don’t create a new branch or PR” instruction (both in AGENTS.md and a cursor .mdc rule). Instead it followed the “cloud-agent branch/PR template” and created a new branch and a draft PR.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open an existing feature PR (feature/my-feature).
  2. Start a Cloud Agent with an instruction to continue closeout work on that existing branch/PR, and not create a new branch or PR.
  3. Ensure a workspace/repo rule exists forbidding new branches/PRs without an explicit ask (this repo has .cursor/rules/no-branch-or-pr-without-approval.mdc, alwaysApply).
  4. Ask the agent to expand the scope of the implementation somewhat and handoff.

Expected Behavior

Agent commits/pushes on feature/my-feature so changes land on existing PR. No new branch. No new PR. If unsure, ask before creating either.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Screenshot 2026-07-29 at 10.08.41 PM.png
Screenshot 2026-07-29 at 10.08.41 PM.png1544×594 68.5 KB

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.13.25
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: 31e8d61c448c7472e371505838a0fe34083dad50
Date: 2026-07-28T06:17:45.069Z
Layout: Agent Window
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Darwin arm64 25.5.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Cursor Grok 4.5 High Fast

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

Request ID: bc-4f5a2fae-aafe-4ae8-b6d1-777651ff8425

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

6

Hey Mark,

Cloud agents started from the Agents Window are designed to work on their own feature branch (cursor/<name>-<id>) off a base branch, and the harness’s per-turn “create or update the PR” instruction is treated as mandatory. Because those come from the harness itself, they win against AGENTS.md, .mdc alwaysApply rules, and explicit “don’t create a new branch/PR” instructions in the chat - which is why you got cursor/313-working-book-review-fixes-8425 and draft PR #363 instead of commits on #323’s feature/313-working-book. Not intended for cases like yours, and it’s an issue we’re tracking.

The one supported way to keep a cloud agent working on your existing PR branch is to trigger it from the PR itself: on GitHub, comment on PR #323 with @cursor <your instruction>. Agents started that way skip the auto-branch template and commit directly to the PR’s head branch (feature/313-working-book).

For the cleanup you asked about: yes - closing #363 and moving those commits onto feature/313-working-book will land them on PR #323, which is what you want.

8

I understand, but it doesn’t help if the Cursor harness tries to force users into a specific workflow or way of working.

Because of this, I have started to tell Cursor cloud agents to ignore anything in their harness related to creating new branches or opening PRs, and that has worked. It’s not an insurmountable issue. It just creates noise and spends tokens when I have to tell Cursor cloud agents to delete their branch and move to a new one.