Cursor freezes and makes my laptop really hot

[Luisa]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

IDE is frozen - for the past hours, I am not able to use Cursor! It’s very small repo, that I just added a new lambda with a few config settings! I have only two chats open, and I use the models in auto mode.

Steps to Reproduce

I’m not sure, cause it used to work fine, up until recently, after I did a cdk synth it started acting very weird.

I restarted my laptop, Cursor, opened up a new chat, but after using it a few times it hangs.

Expected Behavior

Not freeze!

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

I can’t even press on about Cursor! Nothing happens, and my laptop is really hot

For AI issues: which model did you use?

auto

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

[Luisa]

Here is how the memory looks when Cursor stops working! There is no query or request running, just two past chats opened! I suspect maybe the chat is too long? but before I had so many instances of Cursor running, 4-5 and some of them even doing work in the background. Now I can’t even check the code with one instance!

[Luisa]

ended up switching to Claude Code, cause Cursor was unusable and I’m starting to fall in love with it!

[sanjeed5 (Sanjeed)]

Sorry for the trouble! That 12.93GB RAM usage from Cursor Helper (Renderer) is abnormally high.

Since this started after cdk synth, the generated cdk.out/ folder may be causing some issues. Try adding it to a .cursorignore file in your project root:

cdk.out/

Also try these diagnostics:

1. Test without extensions: Run cursor --disable-extensions from terminal - if this fixes it, an extension is the culprit
2. Check Process Explorer: CMD + Shift + P > “Developer: Open Process Explorer” to see which process is consuming resources
3. Clear chat history: Long conversations can cause memory bloat - try starting fresh with no chats open

[Luisa]

Closing the chats and opening a new one seemed to have fixed it, but what’s weird is that even if I opened a project with fewer chats it would ran into the issue!

I have done cdk synth a bunch of times before, and even with bigger projects, no issue in the past, but I’ll still add it to ignore, as it’s context not needed for Cursor anyways.

[Luisa]

The issue is back! I added cdk.out to .cursorignore and started a new chat but Cursor is still unusable!

I can’t check which process is consuming resources as the cursor is frozen! I can’t do anything with it!

I can’t ran the command you mentioned for disabling extensions:

This is very upsetting!

cursor --disable-extensions

open: unrecognized option `--disable-extensions'

Usage: open [-e] [-t] [-f] [-W] [-R] [-n] [-g] [-h] [-s <partial SDK name>][-b <bundle identifier>] [-a <application>] [-u URL] [filenames] [--args arguments]

Help: Open opens files from a shell.

[Luisa]

@sanjeed5 is it possible to downgrade Cursor’s version? All these problems started to appear when I upgrade it!

[sanjeed5 (Sanjeed)]

Sorry about this. I’ve raised this with the team!

Can you please try reinstalling from here: Download · Cursor

[sanjeed5 (Sanjeed)]

Thanks for the report - the team is looking into this. To help narrow down the cause, can you try:

1. Share your .cursorignore file - Make sure it’s cdk.out/ (with trailing slash) not cdk.out
2. Test with a different folder - Open a completely different workspace (outside your CDK project) to see if the issue still occurs

For downgrading if needed, you can find older versions at Download · Cursor by expanding the version dropdowns.

[Luisa]

@sanjeed5 it happens with any repo, even the ones that don’t have the cdk.out! Before the latest updates I could run cdk synth, and a lot of other commands, no issues whatsoever, even without a .cursorignore.

I updated Cursor yesterday and same issue. After chatting and doing some small changes it freezes. Memory went all the way to 16GB.

I’ll try re-installing the latest one again and if not I’ll re-install an older version! I’ll keep you post it if I notice patterns with reproducing it!

[sanjeed5 (Sanjeed)]

Can you try cursor --disable-extensions from CLI again please? Just want to make sure this is not due to any extensions.

The cursor --disable-extensions command requires the CLI to be installed first. Run: CMD + Shift + P > “Install ‘cursor’ command”

[Luisa]

@sanjeed5 Haven’t had any memory issues since Friday! I reinstalled Cursor same version as before, but it seems to be working fine now. Maybe something just needed a clean reset.

[sanjeed5 (Sanjeed)]

Awesome, glad to hear that! We’ve also added some new improvements in version 2.3. Happy coding!