# Extension fail to install if .cursor-server is deleted

**URL:** <https://forum.cursor.com/t/extension-fail-to-install-if-cursor-server-is-deleted/153546>\
**Category:** Bug Reports\
**Tags:** linux, extensions, ssh\
**Created:** [March 4, 2026, 9:51am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/extension-fail-to-install-if-cursor-server-is-deleted/153546 "2026-03-04T09:51:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shivank\_Garg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@Shivank\_Garg](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Shivank_Garg)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 9:51am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/extension-fail-to-install-if-cursor-server-is-deleted/153546/1 "2026-03-04T09:51:54Z")

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### Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

### Describe the Bug

When the ~/.cursor-server directory is deleted on a remote SSH machine (e.g., to do a clean reinstall), Cursor re-deploys the server binary on reconnect but fails to create the extensions/extensions.json file. This causes all extension installations to fail with an unhandled “file not found” error. The server code assumes this file always exists rather than initializing it when missing.

### Steps to Reproduce

1. Have a working Cursor remote SSH session with extensions installed.
2. On the remote machine, delete the ~/.cursor-server directory:  
rm -rf ~/.cursor-server
3. Reconnect to the remote server from Cursor.
4. Cursor re-deploys the server binary automatically.
5. Try to install any extension (e.g., GitLens, C/C++ Tools, GitHub Actions).

### Expected Behavior

Extensions should install successfully. If ~/.cursor-server/extensions/extensions.json does not exist, the server should automatically create it with default content (e.g., an empty JSON array ) and proceed normally.

### Operating System

Linux

### Version Information

Version: 2.6.11 (user setup)  
VSCode Version: 1.105.1  
Commit: 8c95649f251a168cc4bb34c89531fae7db4bd990  
Date: 2026-03-03T18:57:48.001Z  
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: Windows\_NT x64 10.0.26100

### Additional Information

OS: Linux 6.19.0+  
Connection type: Remote SSH  
Server binary hash: 8c95649f251a168cc4bb34c89531fae7db4bd990  
Error from renderer log:  
[error] [Window] Error: Unable to read file ‘/home//.cursor-server/extensions/extensions.json’(Error: Unable to resolve nonexistent file ‘/home//.cursor-server/extensions/extensions.json’) at Object.factory (file:///…/out/server-main.js:54:27644)  
Some extensions also hit a network timeout before falling back to local download, which also fails due to the same missing file:  
[error] [Window] Error while installing ‘anysphere.csharp’ extension in the remote server. AggregateError [ETIMEDOUT]:[info] [Window] Downloading the ‘anysphere.csharp’ extension locally and install[error] [Window] Error: Unable to read file ‘/home//.cursor-server/extensions/extensions.json’  
Workaround: Manually create the missing file:  
mkdir -p ~/.cursor-server/extensionsecho ‘’ \> ~/.cursor-server/extensions/extensions.json  
After this, extensions install normally.  
Suggested fix: The file read path in server-main.js should handle the missing file gracefully — either by creating it with a default empty array on first access, or by catching the “not found” error and treating it as an empty extension list.

### Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/colin/32/90452_2.png) [@Colin](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Colin)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/extension-fail-to-install-if-cursor-server-is-deleted/153546/5 "2026-03-04T18:06:31Z")

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Great bug report, thanks for filing it with us! I’ve sent this to the team.

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**Author:** ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/system/32/99069_2.png) [@system](https://forum.cursor.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2026, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/extension-fail-to-install-if-cursor-server-is-deleted/153546/7 "2026-03-26T18:06:38Z")

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