# Execution backend unavailable **URL:** \ **Category:** Bug Reports\ **Tags:** wsl\ **Created:** [June 2, 2026, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239 "2026-06-02T15:41:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GaryC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/garyc/32/110448_2.png) [@GaryC](https://forum.cursor.com/u/GaryC)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/1 "2026-06-02T15:41:22Z")
### Where does the bug appear (feature/product)? Cursor IDE ### Describe the Bug Windows 11 + WSL2/Ubuntu + Cursor Everything is up to date. Seems Cursor can sometimes read my code but can’t edit anything. I’ve retried dozens of time over the last 2 days. “Still blocked right now — the execution backend is down again on this turn (Execution backend unavailable even on file read), so I can’t apply or verify edits yet.” I’ve tried all the usual stuff like - restarting WSL - reinstalling the Anysphere extension - deleting my ~/.cursor-server - removing unnecessary extensions Don’t matter what project/folder I try to work with, I get the same issue. Also doesn’t matter what AI model I pick. ### Steps to Reproduce Anything I ask the agent to do produces this type of response. ### Expected Behavior Agent edits my files ### Operating System Windows 10/11 ### Version Information Version: 3.6.31 (system setup) VS Code Extension API: 1.105.1 Commit: 81fcf2931d7687b4ff3f3017858d0c6dee7e2a60 Date: 2026-05-31T17:46:29.630Z Layout: editor Build Type: Stable Release Track: Default Electron: 39.8.1 Chromium: 142.0.7444.265 Node.js: 22.22.1 V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0 xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.220 OS: Windows\_NT x64 10.0.26200 ### For AI issues: which model did you use? Auto, Composer 2.5, Codex 5.3 med ### Does this stop you from using Cursor Yes - Cursor is unusable ---
**Author:** ![Tianhao\_Xue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/tianhao_xue/32/110496_2.png) [@Tianhao\_Xue](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Tianhao_Xue)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 5:18pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/5 "2026-06-02T17:18:43Z")
I encountered the same issue. Windows 11 + WSL2/Ubuntu + Cursor. ---
**Author:** ![kevinn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/kevinn/32/101206_2.png) [@kevinn](https://forum.cursor.com/u/kevinn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 5:45pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/8 "2026-06-02T17:45:33Z")
Hi Gary (and Tianhao) — sorry for the rough couple of days, and thanks for the detailed report. You’re not doing anything wrong: this is a known issue we’re actively working on. On Windows + WSL2 the extension host that runs the agent’s tool calls can become unresponsive, so every tool call (Read, Grep, shell) comes back as “Execution backend unavailable.” We’ve confirmed an uptick matching your timeframe, and the team is on it. A few things worth trying in the meantime: 1. Fully quit and relaunch Cursor (more reliable than Reload Window) to clear a stale extension-host session. 2. Change folder scope — this is sensitive to how the working directory resolves in WSL2. If you use a multi-root `.code-workspace`, try opening a single folder directly (or the parent folder), and vice-versa. 3. Launch once with `cursor --` **`disable-extensions`** to rule out an extension stalling startup. We’ll keep you updated on the status of the bug, and apologies for the inconvenience here ---
**Author:** ![GaryC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/garyc/32/110448_2.png) [@GaryC](https://forum.cursor.com/u/GaryC)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 6:52pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/9 "2026-06-02T18:52:49Z")
Using --disable-extensions seemed to work with one of two projects/folders but it stopped working again. Hope you guys get this worked out soon. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Elton\_Nicolau](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/elton_nicolau/32/104914_2.png) [@Elton\_Nicolau](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Elton_Nicolau)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 8:37pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/10 "2026-06-02T20:37:21Z")
> [@GaryC](#): > > ope you guys get this worked ou I’m also experiencing this. It worked for a while but stoped again. The agent-worker is always disabled ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/original/3X/0/1/01c1f370348d1378846fb1754d8c85d5c6fcbd80.png) ---
**Author:** ![kevinn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/kevinn/32/101206_2.png) [@kevinn](https://forum.cursor.com/u/kevinn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 9:17pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/11 "2026-06-02T21:17:42Z")
> [@GaryC](#): > > Using --disable-extensions seemed to work with one of two projects/folders but it stopped working again. Thanks for the follow-up, we’ll keep you updated! ---
**Author:** ![Noah\_Aronsson-Brown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/noah_aronsson-brown/32/110537_2.png) [@Noah\_Aronsson-Brown](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Noah_Aronsson-Brown)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 10:29am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/12 "2026-06-03T10:29:04Z")
In case this helps anyone, i was able to apply a blocked fix (Execution backend unavailable) by opening a new agent window and asking it to apply the planned fix, read/write were fine in the new agent. This was on the advice of the blocked agent 😅 ---
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Tarkar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@Vishal\_Tarkar](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Vishal_Tarkar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 8:59am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/14 "2026-06-03T08:59:22Z")
So I’m using Cursor with WSL2 and My cursor has just stopped working, and it stays frozen and unresponsive for an extensive amount of time before I can start working on it. I’m getting below error. > Still intermittent outage — metimes, but edits/read works sosearch are still failing (Execution backend unavailable), so I can’t reliably apply changes myself yet. > > I’m blocked: the execution backend isn’t available right now, so I can’t read master: via git, diff master…HEAD, or scan “/path/to/project” yet. Once tooling is back, I’ll generate the full Step 1–4 outputs exactly in your formats. I have tried multiple ways to fix it. - Clearing cache - Restarting WSL2 - Restarting WLS2 Config. - Increasing allocated memory - Restarting System - Reinstalling Cursor - etc etc But nothing is helping so far. ---
**Author:** ![Develanet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/develanet/32/104719_2.png) [@Develanet](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Develanet)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 11:15am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/17 "2026-06-03T11:15:32Z")
Seeing the same issues on Windows 11/WSL2 ---
**Author:** ![Davi\_Ramalho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@Davi\_Ramalho](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Davi_Ramalho)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 11:57am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/18 "2026-06-03T11:57:04Z")
Seeing the same issues on Windows 11/WSL2/Ubuntu24.04 ---
**Author:** ![Ressys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ressys](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Ressys)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 12:34pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/19 "2026-06-03T12:34:23Z")
Same issue, Windows 11/WSL2/Ubuntu 24.04 ---
**Author:** ![alexmandrik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/alexmandrik/32/110673_2.png) [@alexmandrik](https://forum.cursor.com/u/alexmandrik)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 12:37pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/20 "2026-06-03T12:37:18Z")
Here is a workaround until the error is fixed. I’ve created a skill that tells the agent not to run any tools, but instead instructs me to perform the task manually. Feel free to adjust it to your own taste (I’m still improving it): > ---
**Author:** ![AluxHB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/aluxhb/32/110597_2.png) [@AluxHB](https://forum.cursor.com/u/AluxHB)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 7:54pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/21 "2026-06-03T19:54:32Z")
Same error here, after couple of prompts, suddenly stop working with “Execution backend unavailable” Win11- WSL2-Debian ---
**Author:** ![kevinn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/kevinn/32/101206_2.png) [@kevinn](https://forum.cursor.com/u/kevinn)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 9:32pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/22 "2026-06-03T21:32:16Z")
Thanks for sharing the tips! We are working on it and we’ll keep you updated ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Coaton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Alex\_Coaton](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Alex_Coaton)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 2:16am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/23 "2026-06-04T02:16:10Z")
I dunno if this relates to the issue but I noticed that Cursor’s Agents Window has trouble starting WSL (see screenshot). Repro: 1. Open Cursor Editor window from WSL terminal (Ubuntu). 2. Open the Agents Window from top bar and close the Editor Window. 3. Close Agents Window. 4. Run Cursor from WSL terminal: cursor . 5. Notice that WSL can’t be started when the Agents Window starts up. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/original/3X/1/2/1298c6322ed7d7ae0c62e45e159c7d4e68ca4613.png) ---
**Author:** ![Elwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@Elwin](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Elwin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 8:44am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/24 "2026-06-04T08:44:16Z")
Same issue here: Windows 11 / WSL2 / Cursor. It was fine yesterday, but completely broken today ---
**Author:** ![Raphael\_Marot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9de053/32.png) [@Raphael\_Marot](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Raphael_Marot)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 11:51am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/25 "2026-06-04T11:51:29Z")
Any update? ---
**Author:** ![alexmandrik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/alexmandrik/32/110673_2.png) [@alexmandrik](https://forum.cursor.com/u/alexmandrik)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 1:07pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/26 "2026-06-04T13:07:25Z")
It worked fine in the Agents Window but now it has problem with connecting to WSL. This is terrible. ---
**Author:** ![alexmandrik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/alexmandrik/32/110673_2.png) [@alexmandrik](https://forum.cursor.com/u/alexmandrik)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 1:18pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/27 "2026-06-04T13:18:27Z")
Okay, after restarting WSL, it seems to be working again. Actually, this bug allowed me to discover that the Agents Window isn’t as bad as I first thought. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Coaton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Alex\_Coaton](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Alex_Coaton)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 5:24pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239/28 "2026-06-04T17:24:22Z")
This morning, I tested whether the execution backend is accessible with the prompt below and it works. Did your peeps fix it @kevinn ? ```auto Run this command: uv run python source/manage.py --help ``` [Next page](https://forum.cursor.com/t/execution-backend-unavailable/162239.md?page=2)