Default Mode for new Chat

Feature request for product/service

Chat

Describe the request

New chats default to “Agent” mode.

While this is doubtless a sensible default for many / most users, I would like to have a “Default Agent mode” setting, so that all new chats would open (for me) in “Plan Mode”.

[Advanced - we use Cursor as a consultancy for several clients, and with slightly different workflows - it would be ideal if this setting could be over-ridden by a repo-specific setting.]

Operating System (if it applies)

MacOS

It might be a bug in the latest version. Would be weird for them to remove this feature. (In previous Cursor versions you were able to set a preferred mode for new chats.)

It might be there, but sufficiently well hidden I’ve been unable to find it.

Do you know where it is/was?

I can change the mode for a chat I created. I’m after a way of setting the DEFAULT mode, because I’ve occassionally failed to flip from “Agent” to “Plan” for complex tasks.

It was probably in Cursor Settings - Agents. But not there anymore at least on my system (2.5.20).

I need it too.

Yeah it was removed in 2.5:

Default Mode settings does not appear in Cursor IDE to change the default setting to Ask mode - #7 by Colin

The Default Mode setting was removed in 2.5. From the changelog:

  • Removed Default Mode setting so each new agent conversation begins fresh.

The mode defaults to Agent for each new chat, but can be changed in the Composer.

Now that the model can intelligently suggest switching modes mid-conversation (e.g., offering to switch to Plan mode when it makes sense), a static global default was less useful than it used to be. You can still switch modes per-chat, it’s just no longer a sticky global default.

Even though it was clearly a highly requested feature:

How can I change default Chat mode as Ask, not Agent

Cursor devs, please bring this back? AFAIU it’s a purely value-adding feature with zero risk, it just gives the user more control over a simple (but often important) preference.