When using design mode (either cmd+L or inline), I get an error “Failed to add image. The image format is not supported.”. The issue is sometimes fixed by restarting the IDE.
Steps to Reproduce
I don’t have a reproducing pattern. The bug is often solved by closing / reopening the IDE, but happens again a few hours later.
Thanks for reporting this. The error message is misleading — “image format is not supported” is a catch-all that shows up for any failure in the image processing pipeline, not just actual format issues. Since design mode screenshots are always PNG, the real cause is likely something else (a transient file write or image loading issue), which is why restarting Cursor clears it.
To help us pinpoint the actual failure, could you do the following next time the error appears?
Open the Developer Console: Help > Toggle Developer Tools, then click the Console tab
Look for red error lines containing [imageUtils] — this will show the actual exception behind the generic message
Right-click in the console and select Save as… to export the full log, then share it here
That will tell us exactly where in the pipeline the failure occurs and help us fix it.
In the meantime, restarting Cursor when it happens is the right workaround.
Thanks for the logs, @dverdev. They confirm exactly what’s happening: the screenshot is captured and saved to disk, but Cursor then fails to load it back internally. The error message (“image format is not supported”) is misleading — this has nothing to do with the image format.
The same pattern repeats several times in your log, which matches the intermittent behavior @r_duv described. I’ll file this with our engineering team so they can trace the load failure.
Restarting Cursor when it happens is still the workaround for now.
Got error: failed to add image. The image format is not supported.
Steps to Reproduce
I used design tool (ctrl+shift+d), selected an element, pressed ctrl+L to add to chat. Got error: failed to add image. The image format is not supported.
This is the same underlying bug (the error message is misleading — it’s not actually about the image format). I’ve added your report to our tracking ticket with engineering.
Your case is different from the others in one important way: restarting Cursor doesn’t fix it for you. For the other reporters, a restart always cleared it. That distinction matters for diagnosis.
Could you try two things?
Check the Developer Console: Open Help > Toggle Developer Tools, click the Console tab, then try the design tool again. Look for red error lines containing [imageUtils] — right-click in the console and select Save as… to export the log, then share it here.
Try clearing workspace storage: Close Cursor, delete the folder at ~/.config/Cursor/User/workspaceStorage/, then reopen. Note: this will clear your chat history and workspace-specific state for all projects, so only do this if you’re comfortable with that.
If neither helps, sharing the console log from step 1 will help us figure out why it persists for you specifically.
I have additional context. I get the error when the element is close to the edge of my screen (happens 100% of the time). Error copied from developer console:
