Extension Host Repeatedly Crashing (code -1073741819 / 0xC0000005) — All Editor Features Broken

Hey, thanks for the detailed report and logs. This is a known crash pattern in the retrieval-always-local extension host on Windows. We’ve been seeing it from several users recently.

The crash code 0xC0000005 (Access Violation) points to a native crash in the local indexing binary crepectl, which gets triggered through cursor-retrieval.

Try this:

  • Open Cursor Settings, not VS Code settings, then go to Indexing & Docs
  • Turn off Codebase Indexing
  • If you see Index Repositories for Instant Grep (BETA), turn that off too
  • Restart Cursor

Another user found that the Instant Grep (BETA) option was the trigger, especially on larger projects: Extension host terminated unexpectedly always - #6 by facio313

You’ll lose local codebase search, but chat, agent, Cursor Tab completions, and everything else should work.

A couple questions to help narrow this down:

The team is aware of extension host crashes in this area. Your report and logs help with prioritization. Let me know how it goes.