Cursor requires wget on host machine to install Cursor Server in dev container

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Cursor appears to be looking for the wget command on the host machine rather than inside of the Docker image being used as a dev container.

Other support threads indicate that as long as the Docker image contains wget, Cursor will be able to install Cursor Server correctly. However, even after ensuring my Docker image contains wget and it’s accessible on the PATH, I get:

"Failed to install Cursor server: [downloadFile] Command failed with exit code 1: spawn wget ENOENT"

It’s only after I run the following command on my host machine (Windows) and restart Cursor that it’s able to successfully install Cursor Server into the dev container and start the remote session:

winget install -e --id JernejSimoncic.Wget

Steps to Reproduce

Dockerfile

FROM python:3.13-slim
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y wget

.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

{
  "name": "cursor-server-bug",
  "build": {
    "dockerfile": "../Dockerfile",
    "context": ".."
  },
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      "extensions": ["ms-python.python", "ms-python.vscode-pylance"]
    }
  }
}

Install the latest 1.0.32 version of the Anysphere Dev Containers extension.

Set Hyper-V as Docker Engine in Docker Desktop (unsure if this is related to the root cause)

Simply attempt to open the above devcontainer using the Anysphere Dev Container extension. Upon opening you’ll get the error message in the bug description.

Expected Behavior

As long as wget is installed in the Docker image, Cursor installs Cursor Server without issue.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 3.1.15 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 3a67af7b780e0bfc8d32aefa96b8ff1cb8817f80
Date: 2026-04-15T01:46:06.515Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Additional Information

Using Hyper-V instead of WSL2 for the Docker Engine as my company forbids WSL2 due to security concerns.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. This really looks different from the earlier wget ENOENT cases, where adding wget to the Dockerfile was enough.

Since wget is present in the container but the error only goes away after installing wget on the host, it looks like the extension is downloading on the host side, not inside the container. This is likely related to the Hyper-V backend, since the previous cases used WSL2.

I shared this with the team. No specific timeline yet, but your report helps a lot with prioritization, especially with such clear repro steps.

For now, the workaround you found winget install wget on the host is unfortunately the only option for Hyper-V setups.

Let me know if anything else comes up.