Cursor crashes SSH host

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1

Heads up, Cursor is effectively “DDOSing” my remote host. Just by opening a folder, the IDE spawned so many processes that it filled the RAM and crashed a production server running multiple services.

Even a hard reboot was a struggle because the host was so locked up. I’m seeing massive memory dumps and I’ve had to stop using Cursor on this project entirely to keep the site online. Is there a known issue with the remote server component spiraling out of control?

EDIT: Note, this happens when opening remote folders that contain Wordpress installs. I can open an empty folder and link files into it fine.

4

Hey, thanks for the report. This looks like an extensions issue, probably some PHP or WordPress extension is triggering an infinite process loop.

Could you share:

  • Cursor Settings > Extensions: a list of installed extensions (especially PHP or WordPress-related ones)
  • Your Cursor version and OS (both local and remote system)
  • The approximate size of the WordPress folder

Try this temporary workaround:

  1. Open an empty folder over SSH
  2. Settings > Extensions > … (three dots) > Disable All Extensions
  3. Try opening the WordPress folder again
  4. If it works, re-enable extensions one by one to find the one causing it

This should help isolate the issue before we pass it to engineering.

5

Actually have no Wordpress/PHP extensions. Tried again in an empty directory, still does it.

Mac OS Tahoe host, remote is Debian 13

EDIT: I connected to the host, it crashed, when I reconnected either files were missing or the agent deleted them (I had to resubmit my prompt). None of the files in the directory were dirty/edited.

Screenshot 2026-01-12 at 5.19.58 PM

7

Thanks for the info. Let me clarify two things:

About the “deleted files”

The files were not deleted by the agent. What you’re seeing is a known bug in the review panel where files keep accumulating even though they aren’t actually deleted. Other users have hit the same issue:

Workaround: close the current chat, it should temporarily clear the review panel. The team is working on a fix.

About the SSH crash

This is a serious issue. Cursor spawns a huge number of processes and can take down the host. To pass this to the engineers, we need the info from post #4:

  • A screenshot of your extensions list (Cursor Settings > Extensions)
  • Your Cursor version
  • Approximate size of the WordPress folder

Try this workaround:

  • Connect over SSH to an empty folder
  • Go to Settings > Extensions > … > Disable All Extensions
  • Try opening the WordPress folder again
  • If it works, re-enable extensions one by one to find the one causing it

If it still happens with all extensions disabled, it could be a bug in Remote SSH itself or the indexing component. Let me know what you find.

8

The files weren’t in review, or related to review - the folder was just empty of almost all files. It’s impossible to know how they got deleted, but this happened when the server was locked up. I don’t think it was the agent, it was supposedly planning it’s next moves. Something else deleted the files.

Cursor version from about info:

Version: 2.3.34 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 643ba67cd252e2888e296dd0cf34a0c5d7625b90
Date: 2026-01-10T21:17:10.428Z (2 days ago)
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.0.0

The only installed extension is Remote and Python.

This happens as soon as I connect - to any folder on the host now. We’re up to 6 total crashes. The tool has become unusable. I’ve already brought the host down for 2026 more than it should be and we’re only 13 days in.

EDIT: This was a one off folder, not related the Wordpress, not tracked by git - the files were simply removed and the only evidence of them ever existing is in Cursor’s index. Out of 10 files, 2 remained.

10

…deleted the .cursor folder on the host, connected, crashed the host. No extensions.

12

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