I’m having an issue on my new Windows 11 laptop. The Agents window works normally, but the Agent inside the Cursor IDE gets stuck on “Taking longer than expected…” and eventually fails.
Error: “Timed out waiting for the agent host bridge to register.”
Request ID: 91a3eaeb-f4d6-4775-9615-5ee3d1209940
Steps to Reproduce
Open Cursor IDE on Windows 11.
Open any folder, including a completely empty folder.
Open Agent and send a simple message such as “Hello”.
Agent stays on “Taking longer than expected…” and eventually fails with “Timed out waiting for the agent host bridge to register.”
The separate Cursor Agents Window works normally on the same PC.
Expected Behavior
the Agent inside Cursor IDE should respond normally, as it does in the separate Agents Window.
This is on our side, not anything in your setup. The Agent requests from the Cursor IDE window on your new laptop aren’t reaching our servers at all. Each one waits about a minute on a local component that runs agents inside the IDE window and then gives up with that “agent host bridge” message, while the Agents window on the same laptop takes a different route, which is why it keeps working. This is an issue we’re tracking.
I’ve made a change on our side that should help. To pick it up:
Close Cursor, then open Task Manager and end every remaining Cursor process.
Reopen Cursor and open any folder.
Open Agent and send a short message like “hello”.
Let me know whether it responds normally afterward.
If it still gets stuck, this would help us pin down what’s happening on your machine:
Press Ctrl+Shift+P and run “Capture and Send Debugging Data”, accepting the defaults. With your privacy settings it saves a zip locally instead of uploading, so please attach that zip here along with the time you sent the test message.
Open View > Output and pick “Cursor Agent Host” in the dropdown on the right, then paste what it shows (or DM it to me).
In the meantime, the Agents window should keep working for you.
Request ID: dcb033da-2105-47b0-993a-9397fc4e9082
Timed out waiting for the agent host bridge to register; please retry.
AgentTurnClassifiedError: Timed out waiting for the agent host bridge to register; please retry.
at glo (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8258:107224)
at async X6o._waitForAgentHostBridgeBoundedInner (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:17692:4080)
at async X6o._waitForAgentHostBridgeBounded (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:17692:3901)
at async X6o._waitForPushRequestContextProviderRegistration (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:17692:3506)
at async cRe (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:6917:11698)
at async vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:17692:10623
at async cRe (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:6917:11698)
at async X6o.streamFromAgentBackend (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:17692:10520)
at async X6o.getAgentStreamResponse (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:17692:38915)
at async cDe._submitChatMaybeAbortCurrent (vscode-file://vscode-app/w:/Users/Tony/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8230:4412)
Hey @Tony_Brown, thanks, your logs pinpoint it, and it’s a different cause than Nicola’s. A native component that Cursor’s in-window agent needs didn’t install correctly on your machine, so that component fails to start and the request never leaves your machine (the “agent host bridge” timeout).
I’ve made a change on our side that should route you around it. Fully quit Cursor (end any leftover Cursor processes in Task Manager), reopen, and try a quick “hello”.
If it still fails: the logs show Cursor installed on your W: drive, where that component is missing and file operations are being blocked (“operation not permitted”). Uninstall and reinstall the latest build from Cursor · Download to the default location on your C: drive (your settings and extensions are kept). If the W: drive is required (a managed device or redirected profile), your IT team may need to allow Cursor to run its native files and write to its own folders there.
My system had W designated as the system drive when it was installed, so the software is all installed there as well. By default, there is no C drive — C is where I store my code.
The problem was finally resolved. The cause was that VC++ had not been installed. We discovered this by using another AI tool to analyze the debug logs, which revealed the keyword “VC++.” After using DX Repair to fix the runtime libraries, everything worked normally.
One very disappointing aspect of this is that neither the installation process nor the runtime gave any indication that these components were required. When they were missing, no error reason was provided to the user—not even in the logs. In the end, we had to infer the missing VC++ runtime from the faint clues in the debug logs.