I’ve started facing issues with Cursor IDE which is used through SSH to work on my project on a remote machine.
Specifically, I see constantly spinning loading icon in files panel or specific files, I cannot save my files (it’s processing for a while without end), or use terminal.
Previously I was using remote ssh extension from MS/VS Code, but something happened during last few days, and these issues started appearing. So as recommended in some other threads - I moved to Remote - SSH extension by Anysphere. Default v1.0.46 has same issues, as well as v1.0.17 (as recommended in some other threads).
My project can be considered somewhat big, but it worked perfectly fine before, and nothing significant has changed during last days with regard to files number/size.
The only thing which changed - I’ve updated my Cursor a few days ago.
Steps to Reproduce
Connect to project on a remote machine through SSH in Cursor IDE
Work for 5-10 mins, and IDE starts lagging/freezing
Thank you for the detailed report, and I appreciate the troubleshooting you’ve already done – I can see you’ve tried both the MS and Anysphere Remote SSH extensions, including the v1.0.17 downgrade that has helped some users. The fact that none of these made a difference is useful signal.
What you’re experiencing is a known performance issue with the extension host over SSH connections, particularly on larger workspaces. Our engineering team is aware of this and actively working on improvements.
Since the extension version swap didn’t help in your case, here are a few other things worth trying:
Open a smaller sub-directory – Instead of opening the root of your project, try opening just the specific directory you’re actively working in. This reduces the amount of workspace the extension host needs to process, and is the most impactful workaround for larger projects.
Disable MCP servers on the remote – If you have any MCP servers configured (in .cursor/mcp.json or Cursor Settings > MCP), try removing them temporarily. The MCP extension activation over SSH can add significant load to the extension host.
Check extension activation times – Run Developer: Show Running Extensions from the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P) to see if any extensions are taking unusually long to activate. Disabling heavy extensions on the remote side may help.
Add generated folders to .cursorignore – If your project has directories like node_modules, dist, build, or other generated content, adding them to a .cursorignore file at your project root can reduce the load.
Currently it worked OK for the last day, but I also had some issues on my side related to the SSH connection.
I would propose to put this issue on hold for the next few days - if this issue won’t appear again - I’ll close it.
Still, I’m not sure what was the reason of original MS extension start bugging. Also, I had most of my “big folders” in cursorignore file.