After updating to Cursor 2.1.0 (running on VSCode 1.105.1), all Custom Modes have disappeared. They no longer show up in the settings at all. Previously, they were available as options labeled as Beta Mode. Now they’re completely gone.
Since the update, all my existing Custom Modes vanished, and there’s no way to create or configure new ones. What does this mean? Is this a bug, or were Custom Modes intentionally removed?
I really hope—please, absolutely not—that the latter isn’t the case.
Operating System
Windows 10/11
Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)
I just updated to 2.1.0 and all my custom modes disappeared. I had put a ton of effort into curating several very useful modes for the different phases of my work and now they are gone with no option to add new ones and nothing in Cursor Settings to reenable custom modes. Keyboard shortcuts to enable the modes don’t work. They don’t appear in the agent mode menu, and there is no option to bring the functionality back in Cursor Settings.
Don’t think this is a bug, this is Cursor continuing to blackbox everything and restrict developer modifcation, the one user group you should avoid restricting.
I hope not the custom mode were the only reason why I was using Cursor even when they limit us to 5 modes.. Any official answer from devs would be nice thank you.
I’ve been a Cursor user for over a year now, and I’ve tested every IDE under the sun — extensions, beta features, the whole circus. Cursor and RooCode were the only ones that actually delivered real, full-stack custom modes. GitHub Copilot pretends to offer something similar, but in the big picture Cursor has always been the clear winner: indexing sharper than a surgeon’s scalpel, autocomplete smooth like silk, and — most importantly — the power of Custom Modes.
Being limited to five Custom Modes was already a joke, sure, but it was a joke you could live with. You’d delete irrelevant ones, swear under your breath, and keep going. Annoying? Yes. But manageable.
But removing Custom Modes entirely? That’s a straight-up deal-breaker — the kind of move that makes you blink twice and wonder if the dev team accidentally pushed the wrong branch.
Custom Modes were one of the main reasons I used Cursor at all. Probably the same for many others. Without them, Cursor becomes indistinguishable from every other IDE on the market — Windsurf included, which also offers no real Custom Mode capabilities.
I’m on the $200 plan, and last month alone I spent an extra $500 on top. Heavy users like me aren’t edge cases — we’re the core. And this update is exactly the kind of breaking change that pushes power users away. After this announcement, I’ll be canceling my subscription for the next billing cycle, because there’s simply no value left for me.
This decision isn’t just disappointing — it’s absurd. It makes no strategic sense, no product sense, and definitely no developer-experience sense. Whatever the reasoning was, it’s impossible to see it as anything but a baffling step backward.
Thank you for the detailed feedback, I will share it with the team.
@Benutzer4 could you share how you used Custom Modes specifically? E.g. specific tools enabled, or keyboard shortcuts, or any other setting that was beneficial?
The core power of Custom Modes has always been the system prompt — the brain of each mode. That’s the whole point. When you’re working in a TypeScript environment, you want a TypeScript-tuned agent. When you switch over to generating a reference document, you want a different agent with different constraints. These aren’t gimmicks. They’re workflow pillars. They’re how serious developers shape the AI to match the task, not the other way around.
Look at RooCode — they’ve been offering real Custom Modes for over two years, practically since day one. Infinite modes. Configurable. Extendable. That’s what a mature implementation looks like. That’s what unlocks efficient prompting.
Cursor removing this? It’s like swapping a laser scalpel for a plastic spoon.
It makes zero sense to manually paste system prompts into the chat every time you switch context. That’s stone-age UX. Custom Modes existed to solve exactly that — and other IDEs, VS Code extensions, and RooCode still treat them as essential.
The irony? Cursor already uses internal modes under the hood e.g. Plan Mode, Ask orAgent. Every extension does the same thing. These internal modes exist because modes work. They’re fundamental. And developers need their own, not just whatever fixed set a product team bakes in.
And the use cases? Endless.
One dev might have five modes.
Another might have fifty.
Some have hundreds — especially heavy users of extensions like RooCode. Because workflows differ. Stacks differ. Teams differ. No single preset list fits everyone.
Removing Custom Modes just because “the majority doesn’t bother with system prompts” is a complete misunderstanding of who drives advanced AI-assisted development. Power users aren’t the edge case — they’re the ones pushing the boundaries, paying the higher tiers, and building the ecosystems.
For many of them, these system-prompt pillars weren’t optional luxuries. They were structural supports. And now those supports are being pulled out from under the entire workflow.
RooCode understood this years ago. Cursor just forgot it. Other IDE’s do not even know.
The system prompt or Custom Instruction as it was called in Custom Modes is essentially a /command that you can still create with Commands | Cursor Docs
I agree it makes no sense to copy paste frequent prompts which is why we created the commands. From that perspective you are moving the instructions from Custom Modes to Commands and you can have more than five.
We don’t need Commands. They were just the tiny consolation prize.
What we actually need are Custom Modes — the real deal — where we can define an internal PROMPT that every chat boots up with. Then assign specific models to each Mode, decide which Mode is allowed to use which tools, which MCP, and so on. Exactly the system you had running in Beta for months.
Instead of removing it, you should’ve expanded it, sharpened it, and turned it into the powerhouse everyone was waiting for.
That’s what users want.
Yeah. This will make me just use Copilot at this point. Can add custom tools, great interface for adding and editing the agent file. Can add additional tools via extention, EXPOSED TOOL NAMES!
For the love of God, why y’all choose to blackbox everything, and continue to take away Dev autonomy will drive people away from your product.
Can you please restore the ability to create custom modes? I was really helpfull. Even you can marketing the feature. It’s something a team will use and choose a service over others. Please restore the feature
