File viewer doesn't show files (+ sighs around agents window)

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE (Agents window)

Describe the Bug

The file viewer in the agents window still doesn’t work reliably. Expanding folders to browse files often just doesn’t respond, and there’s no refresh button to fall back on when things get stuck.

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image260×426 4.75 KB

as you can see the last folder is expanded but nothing is shown in terms of files

There’s also a confusing UX pattern where once you open a file, the files icon disappears entirely. To get back to the file view, you have to click on an existing file rather than just hitting a dedicated button. It would make much more sense to keep the files button permanently visible alongside terminal, git, and browser, so switching between views is always one click away.

image

There’s no files button to go to file viewer without clicking on an existing open file tab

Steps to Reproduce

Open a workspace with multiple root folders and then try to expand and open some folder and it would not work. This happens almost 50% of the times.

A workaround I am using right now is to right click that folder and create a temp file to refresh the files tab and then I can see all the files and then I delete that temp file i just created.

Would reallllllyyyyy love if you could just add a simple refresh button like how the editor window has.

Expected Behavior

Show all of the files

Other Comments

In the past I have always tried agents window but failed to adopt it due to many bugs in the earlier versions when cursor v3 came out. So, I’ve been giving the agents window another serious shot today (with v3.3 and that weirdly big Try Agents window button on my editor window), and a lot of the issues from older versions have genuinely been fixed, so the progress is real and appreciated. But the bugs that remain tend to be pretty fundamental to the workflow. Every time I get into a good flow, I hit a bug, stop to document it, spend time writing it up on the forum, and by the time I’m done I’ve lost the my line of thought on what I was working entirely. That happened multiple times today, and it adds up fast (I am not kidding when I have say I have spent almost 2 hours today in just working around the bugs and reporting them today). I think the agents window has come a long way, but it probably needs a bit more work before it’s consistently reliable enough to help people stay in flow rather than break it. The agents window’s selling point is you get to orchestrate multiple agents and projects at the same time but that hasn’t been the case for me at all today. I spent way more time figuring the weird UX, bugs and their workarounds out than actually working properly.

So all in all, I think I will fall back to using the Editor window, again, (sigh).

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 3.3.30 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 3dc559280adc5f931ade8e25c7b85393842acf30
Date: 2026-05-09T18:28:42.332Z
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
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

6

Thanks for the detailed write-up and screenshots. Both issues you’ve reported are known:

  1. Folder expansion showing no files: This is a known bug with how the Glass file tree handles loading errors. When a folder fails to load, it silently shows as empty with no retry. Your workaround of creating a temp file to force a refresh is a good one. Unfortunately, there’s no built-in refresh button yet. Our team is actively working on fixing the underlying issue.

  2. Files icon disappearing after opening a file: A fix for this has been shipped recently. Could you check if you’re on the latest version? Go to Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P > Attempt Update and restart Cursor. The fix should make the Files button stay visible even when you have files open.

You may also find this related thread helpful: File view broken in Agent Window

We hear the broader feedback too. The Agents window has come a long way, but the remaining bugs hit fundamental workflows. The team is aware and actively working on file tree reliability.