My Indexing & Docs tab is missing from Cursor Settings. I did not disable indexing myself, and there is no toggle for this in the web dashboard.
What I observe
Cursor Settings sidebar goes: … → Tab → Beta → Docs
There is no “Indexing & Docs” item between Tab and Beta.
Searching settings / Command Palette for “index” / “indexing” finds nothing useful.
Privacy mode is not blocking: PRIVACY_MODE_USAGE_CODEBASE_TRAINING_ALLOWED / isInPrivacyMode: false.
Technical details (local client)
App version: 3.11.25 (stable, Windows)
Client feature gate disable_codebase_indexing evaluates to true for my account (Statsig bootstrap in workbench.experiments.statsigBootstrap).
Related gate disable_codebase_not_indexed_notification is also true.
Statsig hashed gate id for disable_codebase_indexing: 2886953242
Rule id observed: 3uTkbhhbstlENslc10wI1M
Country in Statsig user profile: AE
Repro that confirms server-side enforcement
If I temporarily set the local Statsig cached gate disable_codebase_indexing to false and restart Cursor, Indexing & Docs appears.
Within a few seconds the tab disappears again after the client refreshes config from your servers (gate returns to true with the same rule id).
So this is not a corrupted install: reinstall will not help. Please check why disable_codebase_indexing is enabled for my user and re-enable codebase indexing / the Indexing & Docs settings tab for my account.
I need the indexing UI to monitor codebase index progress for my projects.
Thank you.
Steps to Reproduce
Open Cursor IDE (stable 3.11.25) on Windows and sign in with my account.
Open Cursor Settings (Ctrl+Shift+J / gear → Cursor Settings).
Look at the left sidebar between “Tab” and “Beta”.
Observe that “Indexing & Docs” is missing (sidebar goes Tab → Beta → Docs).
Search settings / Command Palette for “index” / “indexing” — no Indexing settings page.
Optional repro of server-side gate: temporarily set local Statsig bootstrap gate disable_codebase_indexing=false and restart Cursor → Indexing & Docs appears for a few seconds, then disappears again after config refresh (gate returns to true, rule_id 3uTkbhhbstlENslc10wI1M).
Expected Behavior
Cursor Settings should show “Indexing & Docs” between Tab and Beta, so I can see codebase indexing progress, resync index, and manage ignore rules, as documented at Semantic & Agentic Search | Cursor Docs
Hey, thanks for the detailed breakdown. Your mechanics diagnosis is correct: the tab isn’t disappearing because of a broken install or Privacy Mode. This behavior is controlled server-side, so editing the local Statsig cache won’t stick. The client just pulls the config back in after restart, exactly like you described.
But this isn’t a bug, and it’s not specific to your account. The Indexing & Docs tab was intentionally removed in newer versions, and it’s not tied to your country or subscription type. We can’t re-enable it per account, which is why it comes back after a restart.
In practice, a separate indexing progress UI isn’t needed right now. Agent retrieval works via agentic search plus grep/file search and doesn’t rely on a semantic index, so removing this tab doesn’t affect how the agent works.
One thing we should fix though: when the indexing section moved out of that tab, the @Docs controls moved too. I’ll pass this to the team. If you were actively using @Docs or watching indexing progress for a specific workflow, tell me what you need and I’ll see what we can offer instead.
When Cursor decided to move away from codebase indexing as a first-class product capability? Has the new search-based approach already been evaluated across several releases and on sufficiently large, complex codebases?
I’m asking because persistent codebase indexing was one of the main reasons Cursor felt fundamentally different from tools that rely primarily on grep, file search, and agent-driven exploration. Those approaches are useful, but they do not always seem equivalent when dealing with large repositories, indirect dependencies, inconsistent naming, or long-running projects.
I’m slightly concerned that removing the visible indexing controls may make it harder for users to understand whether repository context is complete, stale, or missing, while also making Cursor more dependent on repeated agent exploration. It would be helpful to know whether this is a temporary product simplification or a broader change in Cursor’s technical direction.
Hi Dean, thanks for the transparency about the server-side gate. Your answer clarifies the UI mechanics, but it leaves the behavioral question open, which matters for users with compliance constraints (I raised the same issue in Indexing-tab-missing.
The gate is called disable_codebase_indexing, not something like hide_indexing_tab. So please clarify:
Behavior, not UI: For accounts where this gate was active, was semantic codebase indexing itself disabled (no code chunks uploaded, no embeddings created), or did indexing continue server-side without visible controls? What happened to previously created embeddings during that period?
Ignore files: Did .cursorindexingignore remain fully effective throughout, and is it still officially supported going forward? The current docs only mention .gitignore and .cursorignore.
Roadmap consistency: You wrote the tab was “intentionally removed in newer versions” — but in 3.12.10 it is back, and the current docs still describe “Cursor Settings > Indexing & Docs” (Semantic & agentic search). Is the removal still planned, or was it rolled back? If indexing behavior can change via server-side gates without release notes, how are users with regulatory requirements supposed to verify the actual indexing state?
For repositories where indexing is prohibited, “the agent works fine without the index” and “no index is being created” are very different statements. We need confirmation of the latter.
Hi, I wanted to point out that I answered this in the following forum post and wanted to encourage you to engage or comment on that forum thread if you’d like to discuss this further:
Hi here,
on 3.14.4 no any @Docspossible in chat and no any Docs in config sidebar.
In same time indexing & Docstab is presented in config sidebar.
I used @Docsa lot, missing it so much. (
