Cursor deletes files and folders from my Mac, including app settings, and I've had to set up my Mac from scratch twice (setting up Siri, Touch ID, etc.), even though no specific commands were issued by an agent

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Hello,

I am encountering a very unusual and highly disruptive issue that I am struggling to understand.

This morning, for the first time, I experienced a bug where, upon launching an agent, I noticed that my VS Code theme suddenly disappeared and was replaced by the default Cursor theme. A few seconds later, I received a macOS popup indicating that my iCloud Keychain was inaccessible. Shortly afterward, all my folders completely disappeared from my Mac.

I then restarted my computer and was forced to go through the full onboarding process again, as if the machine were new: setting up Touch ID, configuring privacy settings, etc. I had to re-clone my GitHub repositories, relaunch an agent, and I encountered the exact same issue again.

As a result, I performed a full factory reset of my Mac and carried out a clean installation of Cursor. However, during this new interaction with the tool, the same issue occurred once more.

For context, I am using a MacBook Pro M4 Pro with 48GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The device is less than two years old and has never shown any issues before. I would also like to note that when interacting normally with VS Code (outside of Cursor agents), I have not experienced any similar problems.

This situation is extremely concerning. Although I do have a backup from one week ago that I could use for restoration, it is deeply troubling to see thousands of documents disappear without any clear reason. Additionally, this issue renders Cursor completely unusable, despite the fact that I renewed my subscription just two days ago.

I would appreciate your assistance in identifying the root cause of this issue as soon as possible.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Start from a clean or freshly initialized macOS environment (issue also reproduced after full factory reset).

  2. Install Cursor (latest available version).

  3. Open Cursor and configure it normally (e.g., theme, extensions, GitHub repositories).

  4. Clone one or more GitHub repositories into the workspace.

  5. Launch an agent within Cursor.

  6. Observe that, after launching the agent:

    • The active VS Code theme abruptly switches to the default Cursor theme.

  7. Within a few seconds:

    • A macOS system popup appears indicating that the iCloud Keychain is inaccessible.

  8. Immediately after:

    • Local folders and files on the Mac begin to disappear or become inaccessible.

  9. Restart the machine.

  10. Upon reboot:

    • The system behaves as if it were newly initialized (onboarding process, Touch ID setup, privacy settings, etc.).

  11. Reinstall or reopen Cursor, re-clone repositories, and relaunch an agent.

  12. Observe that the issue occurs again under the same conditions.

The issue has been reproduced even after a full factory reset and clean installation of macOS and Cursor.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.12.17 (Universal)
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: 0fb762053c34788bb7760d5673f8a6d4c8589d50
Date: 2026-07-17T02:53:53.006Z (2 days ago)
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

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

6

Hey @louisbrulenaudet , I’m sorry about the lost data. A few quick things.

First, until we’ve looked at this together, I’d pause running agents in that project and restore from your week-old backup (or Time Machine, if it was on). A deletion like this usually skips the Trash, so ~/.Trash probably won’t have your files.

One question that will help most: what is your agent’s Auto-Run setting, and is it allowed to run terminal commands automatically (for example, an option like “Run Everything”)? An agent can only run commands without asking when Auto-Run is turned on for that, so that setting is the key piece here. As a safeguard in the meantime, I’d switch Auto-Run off, and only “trust” a project when Cursor prompts you if it’s one you fully control.

Working out the rest means going through things specific to your setup (your settings, the repositories you cloned, and some config files inside them), so could you email us at [email protected]? We’ll walk through exactly what to check and get to the bottom of it there. Best to keep those specifics out of the public thread.