Frequently stuck at "planning next moves" or "setting up environment"

I’m new after attempted to migrate from claude but I just can’t work now since the migration

  1. New agent chats (local folder remote-control) get stuck for ages ‘setting up environment’ waiting for worker. I tried killing all, restarting etc.
  2. All agents are working and then suddently all stop with ‘planning next moves’

I generally have about 10 agents, 4-6 working at any time, a few sharing same folder and repos (cockpit) but most across diff folders/projects. no laptop resource issues etc. No network issues. latest os, tried restarts.

Pretty frustrating because claude works so well on desktop, concurrent sessions and remote-control but I wanted to switch to using grok.

sometimes the chat finally ends with [unavailable] HTTP 502 Request ID: 9829c176-879d-4ac8-b6f0-c38f799046d2

Separately, any timeline on remote-control surviving a locked screen with a background process like claude uses

Extra details

MacOs 26.5.2 (25F84)
Cursor v 3.16.17

I have a debugging-data zip file from cursor if support can dm me so I can send it.

main.log for the last hour or so while it’s been stuck

2026-08-15 20:09:32.838 [info] [RendererPing] enabled (intervalMs=5000, blockThresholdMs=15000, stacks=true)
2026-08-15 20:09:32.843 [info] updateURL https://api2.cursor.sh/updates/api/update/darwin-arm64/cursor/3.16.17/e6a7993c7f63f41097db606a95bc9bd30df3b3f817963a37b6066b5127380fd2/stable
2026-08-15 20:09:32.845 [info] update#setState idle
2026-08-15 20:09:32.845 [info] [UpdateSupervisor] Cached gate startup (enabled=true)
2026-08-15 20:09:33.409 [info] [LocalAgentStorage] Scanned 11 recent databases (skipped 0 old), found 20 agent headers, deduped to 20
2026-08-15 20:09:33.414 [info] [Tray] getMacOSIconPath: hasNotifications: false
2026-08-15 20:09:33.422 [info] [Tray] getMacOSIconPath: hasNotifications: false
2026-08-15 20:09:37.123 [info] [PowerMainService] Started wakelock id=0 owner=window:1 reason=“remote-control-keep-awake” activeCount=1
2026-08-15 20:09:46.456 [info] [CursorProclistService] Config enabled feature (subsample every 10s; memoryPressureMonitorEnabled=true)
2026-08-15 20:10:01.533 [info] update#setState checking for updates
2026-08-15 20:10:03.651 [info] UpdateService onUpdateNotAvailable()
2026-08-15 20:10:03.651 [info] update#setState idle
2026-08-15 20:10:39.593 [info] Extension host with pid 92607 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:10:58.749 [info] Extension host with pid 92806 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:11:00.213 [info] [Tray] getMacOSIconPath: hasNotifications: true
2026-08-15 20:11:36.640 [info] Extension host with pid 92516 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:11:53.821 [info] Extension host with pid 93150 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:12:21.769 [info] [Tray] getMacOSIconPath: hasNotifications: false
2026-08-15 20:12:39.261 [info] Extension host with pid 93414 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:13:35.587 [info] Extension host with pid 91920 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:13:36.497 [info] Extension host with pid 93401 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:14:44.864 [info] Extension host with pid 94023 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:15:47.790 [info] Extension host with pid 94172 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:15:53.449 [info] Extension host with pid 94477 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:17:16.080 [info] [Tray] getMacOSIconPath: hasNotifications: true
2026-08-15 20:17:47.547 [info] Extension host with pid 94914 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:17:50.887 [info] Extension host with pid 95036 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:22:16.914 [info] [Tray] getMacOSIconPath: hasNotifications: false
2026-08-15 20:23:16.809 [info] Extension host with pid 96861 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:24:57.767 [info] Extension host with pid 93651 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:24:59.900 [info] Extension host with pid 97334 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 20:33:17.974 [info] [Tray] getMacOSIconPath: hasNotifications: true
2026-08-15 20:40:48.171 [info] [Tray] getMacOSIconPath: hasNotifications: false
2026-08-15 20:54:57.709 [info] Extension host with pid 91707 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 21:04:10.650 [info] update#setState checking for updates
2026-08-15 21:04:11.098 [info] UpdateService onUpdateNotAvailable()
2026-08-15 21:04:11.099 [info] update#setState idle
2026-08-15 21:19:57.720 [info] Extension host with pid 97393 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 21:44:14.678 [info] Extension host with pid 10925 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 21:56:37.932 [info] Extension host with pid 13585 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2026-08-15 21:57:52.579 [info] update#setState checking for updates
2026-08-15 21:57:56.987 [info] UpdateService onUpdateNotAvailable()
2026-08-15 21:57:56.987 [info] update#setState idle

Hi there!

We detected that this may be a bug report, so we’ve moved your post to the Bug Reports category.

To help us investigate and fix this faster, could you edit your original post to include the details from the template below?

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IDE:
Version: 2.xx.x
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: ......

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CLI Version 2026.01.17-d239e66

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Does this stop you from using Cursor?

  • Yes - Cursor is unusable
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  • No - Cursor works, but with this issue

The more details you provide, the easier it is for us to reproduce and fix the issue. Thanks!

Found the problem. It’s all to do with remote-control sessions. Is fine if local. Seems back to claude then unless anyone from cursor can say a fix is coming soon

Hi @thomasr789 Sorry for the frustration here. Thanks for the detailed write-up, and your follow-up is right: this is specific to Remote Control, not local agents.

On current builds only one local worker can register per machine. Whichever folder registers first takes it, and agents started from any other folder wait on a worker that never arrives. That matches what you’re seeing: the agents sharing your cockpit folder keep working, the ones in separate projects hang. It isn’t anything you misconfigured, and restarting won’t clear it. This is an issue we’re tracking, and the “planning next moves” stalls look like the same root, since Remote Control chats route through that one worker connection.

Worth trying in the meantime: instead of a separate window per project, add the folders to a single Cursor window (File → Add Folder to Workspace). One window registers one worker covering all of its folders, which gets around the limit. Failing that, fully quit Cursor, run pkill -f cursor-agent-worker, and reopen only the project you want remote-controlled, using local agents elsewhere.

On the locked screen: Keep This Computer Awake under Settings → Agents → Remote Control holds a wake assertion while plugged in, so a locked screen or dark display is fine. It won’t survive a closed lid, manual sleep, or a switch to battery, and the desktop app does need to stay running since there’s no fully headless mode today.

We’ll follow up if we need the debug info!

Thanks for the reply

  1. The keep awake doesn’t seem to work properly. I used caffeinate -d built into macs and it’s fine now.
  2. When are you extending this to support more than one remote-control session?
  3. In multi tasks - I also get the occasional task stuck and stop button that is inline doesn’t work at all on it. Different issue but just an fyi.

Hi @thomasr789 — quick update. A fix for Remote Control hanging at “Setting up environment” across folders is coming in Cursor 3.20. It isn’t in the current stable release yet, so updating today won’t pick it up. Once you’re on 3.20, each open workspace gets its own worker, and the single-window workaround shouldn’t be needed anymore.

The “planning next moves” stalls looked like the same connection, so those should improve as well. If you still see either one after updating to 3.20, reply here and we’ll take another look. Thanks for sticking with it.

thanks, will be useful. Are these known issues and if so can you direct me where to track.

  1. Your setting to prevent the computer awake doesn’t work
  2. With approx 20 agents, 12 or so pinned, sometimes some keep unpinning themselves

Hi! We’re now on Cursor 3.21 and I’m still experiencing the same issue noted here. I only have two repos yet I cannot get the local remote to work ever since I opened the second a month ago. I get the same “setting up environments” stuck state as described in this post. I’ve tried closing everything and only opening the agents window, launching from different projects or folders, nothing works

Hi @thomasr789, thanks for following up, and sorry for the slow reply.

Both of these have had fixes ship since you posted, so first update to the latest version (3.26 right now).

Keep This Computer Awake: 3.23 fixed an issue where the setting didn’t engage if Cursor launched or reloaded while hidden or the Mac was locked. The setting only applies while you’re plugged in with Remote Control on. It stops the system from sleeping but lets the display turn off. caffeinate -d also keeps the display on, so it’s fine to keep using it if you prefer. If your Mac still sleeps, run pmset -g assertions and paste the output here.

Pinned agents unpinning: A fix for this has shipped too. If it happens again, try Cmd+Shift+P → “Developer: Reload Window” before re-pinning, and let us know if that brings them back.

Reply here if either comes back and we’ll pick it up.

Hi @DerTarchin, sorry for the slow reply.

The fix above shipped in 3.20, so if you’re still stuck on 3.21, something else is probably causing it. Could you try this:

  1. Update to the latest version (3.26 right now). Fully quit Cursor, run pkill -f cursor-agent-worker in Terminal, then reopen and try again.
  2. If it still hangs, share the agent ID of a stuck chat. It starts with bc- and shows in the URL when you open the agent at cursor.com/agents.
  3. Share the output of git remote -v for each repo, and let us know if either one uses a self-hosted Git server or a non-standard port.

Just to follow up on my original post. This is still awful.
Can still only get 1 session working on (this computer). None of it was working at all despite always being on latest, restarting cursor etc. The issue you have is you don’t seem to maintain properly what is happening at OS level. I asked Claude to fix the other background tasks for each chat and so there was only 1 left and now I finally have at 1 working remote session at least.

However not surprised, cursor just so unstable as an app.