Desktop Agents should work on the open local folder. Cloud should be a choice, not the surprise

Ideas Feedback
1

I use Cursor as a desktop editor. The files I want an agent to change are already on this computer, in the folder I have open.

Agents launched from that desktop app often run as Cloud Agents. A Cloud Agent is a remote machine. It cannot read or write the folder on my computer. The chat then says the work is “in the cloud” and that it cannot put the file on my machine. From the desktop window, that is indistinguishable from the local agent until the task has already failed.

That split is useful when I ask for it. A cloud machine is a reasonable place to run a job against a GitHub repo, or to keep working after the laptop is closed. It is a bad default for an agent I started because I am sitting in a local project.

What I expected:

  • An agent started from the desktop app, with a folder open, reads and writes that folder.
  • A cloud run is a separate action, labeled before the first prompt, with the limit stated in the product: this run cannot see your disk.
  • If a chat is already on the cloud machine, the window shows that, instead of leaving the model to discover it and refuse the task.
  • There is a direct action, “Run this on my computer,” that continues the same task against the open folder.

The October 6 changelog describes Projects as running on their own computer in the cloud, with a local agent only when the coordinator decides a test must happen on the machine. For local files that are not a hosted repo, that order is backwards. The computer in front of me is the one that has the work.

I am not asking to remove Cloud Agents. I am asking that the desktop app’s ordinary agent be local, and that cloud stay an explicit choice.

5

Hey @Ric_Sin, thanks for the feedback.

A few things that should help today:

  • Make Local the default: open Settings > Agents and set Default Environment to Local. It starts out as Last Used, so a single Cloud run makes the next new agent start in the cloud too.
  • Check before you send: the Run on picker under the prompt shows whether the agent will run on your computer or in Cloud, before the first message goes out.
  • Bring a cloud chat back: for a chat that’s already in the cloud, use Move to > Local from the chat’s menu to continue the same conversation against your local copy of the repo.

Two caveats: Start from scratch (no folder picked) still starts in the cloud, and moving a chat back to local needs a local checkout of the same repo, so it won’t help with a plain folder that isn’t a git repo. Projects are cloud-first by design, but the coordinator can start agents on your machine when a task needs it.