# Disable Background Tasks

**URL:** <https://forum.cursor.com/t/disable-background-tasks/163448>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** terminal, auto-run, multitask, rules\
**Created:** [June 16, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/disable-background-tasks/163448 "2026-06-16T21:46:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![deanrie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/deanrie/32/1263_2.png) [@deanrie](https://forum.cursor.com/u/deanrie)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2026, 9:14am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/disable-background-tasks/163448/5 "2026-06-19T09:14:56Z")

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Hey, thanks for the report. The rules text won’t help here since the agent follows it best-effort, and it doesn’t block commands. The real switch is Auto-Run.

To make every terminal command and edit wait for explicit confirmation:

- Cursor Settings \> Agents \> Auto-Run \> set it to “Ask every time”.

After that, the agent can’t run tasks without your approval. You can also use the allowlist, denylist, and sandbox there if you want partial automation.

About “multiple agents at once” (sub-agents running tests in parallel). The model spawns them, and there isn’t a separate hard toggle to “disable all sub-agents” right now. A workaround that helped other users:

- Turn off Auto in the model dropdown,
- in Settings \> Models disable Composer 2,
- pick one specific model.

This should noticeably reduce parallel runs and usage. More details here: [How can I prevent Cursor from using composer - 2 - fast to create sub - agents?](https://forum.cursor.com/t/how-can-i-prevent-cursor-from-using-composer-2-fast-to-create-sub-agents/158850)

Let me know if the behavior still continues after switching Auto-Run to “Ask every time”.

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