Cursor CLI throwing SQLITE_IOERR: disk I/O error

[Sam_Johnson1]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor CLI

Describe the Bug

After installing Cursor CLI and restarting the command line, when trying to run a prompt, it displays the following: Error: SQLITE_IOERR: disk I/O error

The message appears briefly and then returns to the input to type the prompt.

I’m using Ubuntu 22.04

Steps to Reproduce

Intall Cursor CLI and try to use it.

Expected Behavior

Run any prompt

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

Linux

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

cursor-agent --version
2025.10.02-bd871ac

For AI issues: which model did you use?

auto

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the report. This looks like a disk permissions or storage issue with the SQLite database that Cursor CLI uses locally. Here’s what you can try:

• First, check that you have enough disk space and that your home directory has write permissions. The CLI stores its database in your user directory.

• Also check your filesystem on Ubuntu 22.04, especially if you use an encrypted home directory or have disk errors.

Let me know if this isn’t your case.

[Sam_Johnson1]

Yes, my home directory use NFS filesystem, is this the reason?

[Sam_Johnson1]

Update!

What I checked

• Disk space/inodes are fine and $HOME is writable. /tmp has correct perms (1777).

• SQLite integrity check on the DB returns ok.

• My home lives on a shared filesystem:
  home on /home/aiops type virtiofs (rw,relatime)

What happens
With the DB on virtiofs, cursor-agent throws SQLITE_IOERR: disk I/O error.

Workaround that fixes it
If I move the app data + temp dirs to a local ext4 volume, the error disappears. For example:

mkdir -p /var/tmp/$USER/{.local/share,.config,tmp}
export XDG_DATA_HOME=/var/tmp/$USER/.local/share
export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/var/tmp/$USER/.config
export TMPDIR=/var/tmp/$USER/tmp
export SQLITE_TMPDIR=$TMPDIR

cursor-agent <my usual command>

After doing this, cursor-agent works normally. This strongly suggests the issue is with SQLite file locking/IO semantics on virtiofs rather than storage/permissions.

Thanks for your answer.