Cursor Projects Assumed I Have ADHD

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I started a new Project– my first Project– after updating to 3.20.21. Following the introductory text, i.e.:

Welcome to your first Project! This is a different way of working together. A quick sense of what that means…

I asked a simple question about how Projects store and access memory, compared to git-tracked memory. I viewed the CoT and noticed this in the first paragraph:

Given the user’s ADHD, I should lead with the key distinction and keep it scannable with bullets…

So, quick question, wtf? :joy:

When I asked why it was making that assumption, it pointed to the Project configuration layer as the culprit.

Steps to Reproduce

Ask Cursor a question. View CoT reasoning. Be perplexed.

Expected Behavior

I would expect your models to not assume psychiatric conditions about your users.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.20.21
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: f09fca384ceca23f7bf21f9c23655b162641d740
Date: 2026-09-13T19:02:51.781Z
Layout: Agent Window
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 42.10.0
Chromium: 148.0.7778.280
Node.js: 24.18.1
V8: 14.8.178.38-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.291
OS: Darwin arm64 25.6.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Claude Opus

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

Hey @MishaTheMisha, thanks for the report!

To be clear about what happened: that line wasn’t something the model inferred about you, and it didn’t come from your rules, your memories, or your account! It comes from a fixed sentence in the default instruction text that every Projects session receives trying to nudge behavior. Nothing about you was stored or assumed!

I’ve flagged this for the team.