Cursor keeps throwing a RetriableError, need a fix

Support Help
1

“I’ve already created new chats, restarted Cursor, restarted the machine, and the error still isn’t resolved. How can I fix it so I can use Cursor?”

An unexpected error occurred on our servers. Please try again, or contact support if the issue persists.

Request ID: fcc71721-b70a-455a-bede-2fafbf2954ab
[internal] Failed to run step, exceeded max retries
RetriableError: [internal] Failed to run step, exceeded max retries
at q5f (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8237:145679)
at Reo (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8237:144105)
at f4f (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8238:13645)
at Object.classify (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8238:17842)
at u4f (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8238:5924)
at async Weo.run (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8238:17164)
at async Ple.runAgentLoop (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8338:34589)
at async iFo.streamFromAgentBackend (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:17791:17287)
at async iFo.getAgentStreamResponse (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:17791:36211)
at async CDe._submitChatMaybeAbortCurrent (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Users/mlgal/AppData/Local/Programs/cursor/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:8316:4529)

6

Hey, thanks for the report and for the Request ID. It helped us track things down quickly.

Your network and setup look fine, so restarting and making new chats won’t help. The issue is that the prompt Cursor builds for each message is about 517,000 tokens, which is more than the model can accept Grok 4.6 supports up to 440,000, and the model under Auto supports up to 500,000. The model rejects the request before it even starts generating. Cursor then tries to compress the context, gets rejected again, and after a few tries shows the error you sent.

Compression doesn’t help here because there’s nothing to compress. The size was already the same on the very first message in each new chat and across all models. That means something large is being injected into every request. Common causes:

  • Rules files: .cursor/rules/, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, or .cursorrules in the project or a parent folder, plus User Rules in Cursor Settings > Rules. One huge or generated file here is the most common cause.
  • MCP servers: Cursor Settings > Tools & MCP. Servers with lots of tools add all their tool descriptions to every request. Try temporarily disabling all of them as a test.
  • Anything attached to the chat: pinned files/folders, @ mentions of large files or directories, or a big pasted text block.

Two quick ways to narrow it down:

  • Open a new chat and click the context usage percentage at the bottom of the input box. You’ll see a breakdown by category rules, MCP tools, files, conversation. Whatever dominates in an empty chat is the culprit.
  • Open Cursor in an empty folder and send a one line request. If it works, the cause is in the project project rules, AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md, project MCP config. If it still fails, it’s at the user level User Rules or global MCP servers.

Once you cut down the overloaded item, new chats should start working right away. If you get stuck, tell me what the context breakdown shows in an empty chat and I’ll help you find the exact file.