Cursor unable to read files and writes code to C:\Users\Vinoj\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor\{project_directory}

Support Bug Reports
,
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Agent in cursor is unable to read files in workspace. It falls back to using type and get-content even though the files are in folders within the workspace. If I open the files in an IDE tab it can start to read them, but when it comes to updating the files instead of updating the file in the workspace it creates a new copy C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor{project_directory}{file_to_update} . As if it has wrong base path.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Ask agent to update a file
  2. It has trouble reading the file and then uses get-content or type
  3. Tries to update the file and you’ll see in chat it writes to C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor{project_directory}{file_to_update} instead of something like C:{project_directory}{file_to_update}

Expected Behavior

Existing file is updated.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.4.37 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 7b9c34466f5c119e93c3e654bb80fe9306b6cc70
Date: 2026-02-12T23:15:35.107Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Auto

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

8c5a69cf-49a1-464b-982f-267165b3455b

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, thanks for the report.

This looks like a bug in path resolution. The agent is using the Cursor install directory as the base path instead of the workspace. A few quick questions to help us debug:

  1. How are you opening the project? Via File > Open Folder, from the command line cursor . or something else?
  2. Where is the project located? At the drive root (for example C:\my-project) or deeper in the folder tree?
  3. Does this happen in every project, or only a specific one?

Also try this:

  • Fully close Cursor, then reopen the project via File > Open Folder
  • If that doesn’t help, try opening the project from a terminal:
    cursor C:\full\path\to\project

Let me know what you find. This will help us speed up the diagnosis.

4

Opened folders from workspace, got same issue. unusable version.