Dev Container Mounts can not use local variables (again, please fix)

Support Bug Reports
,
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I have mounts listed in my devcontainer.json. Some of these mounts interpolate environment variables that I have defined in my ~/.bashrc, e.g.

"source=${localEnv:MOUNT_SOURCE},target=/mount/dest,type=bind"

When reopening my workspace in a devcontainer, these environment variables fail to be interpolated and cause the devcontainer to fail to open. This is not an issue that I encounter when using vscode.

I have confirmed that I am able to echo these env vars in the cursor terminal immediately before rebuilding/reopening in devcontainer. $HOME seems to work fine, but variables exported from .bashrc do not work (they DO work with vscode)

Steps to Reproduce

See above.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 2.6.14 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: eb1c4e0702d201d1226d2a7afb25c501c2e56080
Date: 2026-03-08T15:36:54.709Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.6.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, thanks for the report. I see it’s the same issue we fixed before, so this looks like a regression.

Can you check which version of the Anysphere Remote SSH extension you have installed? (Extensions panel > search for “Remote SSH” > check the version). Last time, the fix landed in v1.0.44.

If you’re on the latest version and it still reproduces, I’ll pass it to the team as a regression.

As a temporary workaround, you can hardcode the paths instead of using ${localEnv:MOUNT_SOURCE}, or export the variables from ~/.zshenv or /etc/environment (these files are read for non-interactive shells).

4

I’m on 1.0.46, what a quick regression!

5

Bump!

6

Hey, sorry for the delay. Confirmed, it’s in v1.0.46 and it reproduces, so this is a regression from the v1.0.44 fix. I’ve already passed this to the team.

Let me know if anything changes.

9

Thanks Dean, looking forward to the resolution

10

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

  • Cursor IDE

  • Cursor CLI

  • Background Agent (GitHub, Slack, Web, Linear)

  • BugBot

  • Somewhere else…

Describe the Bug
If I use set the workspaceFolder property in any devcontainer using a variable, the string doesn’t resolve. Pre-launch validation also fails, because it require the string to be absolute start with a /. Isn’t support for this part of the spec?

Steps to Reproduce
How can you reproduce this bug? We have a much better chance at fixing issues if we can reproduce them!

  1. Create a devcontainer.json file in .devcontainer/

  2. Use a variable in the workspaceFolder property
    {
    “workspaceFolder”: “${localEnv.WORKSPACE_FOLDER}”,
    //…

  3. Reopen window in devcontainer

Expected Behavior
The variable will be resolved to the variable value in configured .env

Screenshots / Screen Recordings
If applicable, attach images or videos (.jpg, .png, .gif, .mp4, .mov)

Failed to reopen folder in container: [UriError]: If a URI contains an authority component, then the path component must either be empty or begin with a slash ("/") character

image
image912Ă—257 19.1 KB

Operating System

  • Windows 10/11

  • MacOS

  • Linux

Version Information

  • For Cursor IDE: Menu → About Cursor → Copy

  • For Cursor CLI: Run agent about in your terminal

IDE:
Version: 2.6.18
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 68fbec5aed9da587d1c6a64172792f505bafa250
Date: 2026-03-10T02:01:17.430Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.6.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?
Model name (e.g., Sonnet 4, Tab…)

N/A

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled
Request ID: f9a7046a-279b-47e5-ab48-6e8dc12daba1
For Background Agent issues, also post the ID: bc-…

N/A

Additional Information
Add any other context about the problem here.

Does this stop you from using Cursor?

  • Yes - Cursor is unusable

  • Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

  • No - Cursor works, but with this issue

14

Hey @systemcarl!

Thanks for reporting. Have merged your report into an existing thread reporting the same issue.

1 Like
18

Bump @Colin when can I expect this to be fixed?