GenerateImage tool hangs 7-17+ minutes with no return; interrupt does not complete or save the file

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Editor, Tab & Chat (autocomplete, Composer, in-editor agent)
MCP & tools

Describe the Bug

In Agent chat (not Quick Chat), the built-in GenerateImage tool hangs and never returns. The agent stays on Working / calling GenerateImage for many minutes. There is no completed tool result, and no PNG is written to disk. After I interrupt, the tool error is:

GenerateImage was interrupted by the user after Nms before it completed

This is not “prompt too long / too complex”. It reproduces with a trivial still-life prompt as well as a long character-sheet prompt.

Date: 2026-08-13 (UTC+8)
App: Cursor 3.11.19, Windows 10 (10.0.19045)
Workspace: a local folder on D:\ (folder name contains non-ASCII characters)
Model: Grok 4.6 Agent chat
Tool: built-in GenerateImage (not local Stable Diffusion)

Incident 1 - ~15:08, complex oil-painting character sheet
Agent called GenerateImage with a long classical-oil full-body character prompt, aspect_ratio 9:16, filename under assets/. The tool stayed pending for ~1037123 ms (~17 minutes). I interrupted. Error: interrupted after 1037123ms before it completed. No image file in the workspace assets folder or in %USERPROFILE%/.cursor/projects/d-Project/assets.

Incident 2 - ~15:26, minimal repro
Prompt: “A single red apple on a white plate, simple still life, soft daylight, plain beige background.”
filename: assets/20260813-152612-simple-apple.png
aspect_ratio: 1:1
The tool stayed pending for ~454616 ms (~7.5 minutes). I interrupted. Same error class: interrupted after 454616ms before it completed. Still no PNG on disk in either assets location.

A later retry was aborted; still no image.

Related behavior on this machine in an earlier session with the same GenerateImage tool:

  • GenerateImage can sit in Working for tens of minutes.
  • An image may appear in the chat UI while the tool call never returns, so the agent turn never ends.
  • Interrupt does not reliably kill the generation job on the service side.
  • Aborting the turn can drop or truncate the conversation record.

Not claiming this as the product bug (agent-side mix-up, already corrected): an agent once watched the workspace assets folder while GenerateImage actually writes to %USERPROFILE%/.cursor/projects//assets. After that watch path was fixed, the hang still happened on the simple apple prompt.

Related forum topics (different symptoms, not duplicates; IDs only because new accounts cannot post many links):

  • 168116: fast-fail “unintended”, not a 7-17 minute hang
  • 149660: closed; Cursor 2.4 connection stalled
  • 162465: closed; 401

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open a project folder in Cursor on Windows 10 (not Quick Chat).
  2. Open Agent chat (Grok 4.6). Ask the agent to generate a simple image.
  3. The agent calls the built-in GenerateImage tool with a short prompt such as: “A single red apple on a white plate, simple still life, soft daylight, plain beige background.” Use filename like assets/yyyyMMdd-HHmmss-simple-apple.png, aspect_ratio 1:1.
  4. Leave the tool running. Observe that it stays pending for 7-17+ minutes (observed ~7.5 min on the apple prompt, ~17 min on a longer character prompt) and never returns a completed result.
  5. Interrupt the agent.
  6. Check disk: no PNG in the workspace assets folder and none in %USERPROFILE%/.cursor/projects/d-Project/assets. Tool error: GenerateImage was interrupted by the user after Nms before it completed.

Expected Behavior

GenerateImage should finish in a reasonable time, return to the agent, show an inline preview, and save a PNG. If the user interrupts, the job should stop cleanly. If a file was already produced, it should remain on disk.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 3.11.19
VSCode Version: 1.125.0
Commit: bf249e6efb5b097f23d7e21d7283429f0760b740
Date: 2026-07-12T21:39:24.175Z
Build: Stable
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Grok 4.6 Agent chat, built-in GenerateImage tool. Not a local image model.

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

5e15da2e-4d3d-4120-a594-51de2a217818

Additional Information

Timeline 2026-08-13 UTC+8:

  • ~15:08 complex oil-painting character prompt → GenerateImage ~17 min → user interrupt → no file
  • ~15:26 simple apple prompt, filename assets/20260813-152612-simple-apple.png, 1:1 → ~7.5 min → user interrupt → no file
  • later retry aborted → no image

GenerateImage landing directory on this machine is %USERPROFILE%/.cursor/projects/d-Project/assets, not the workspace folder.

For agent-tool hangs, Share Data / a Request ID would help the team look up the pending GenerateImage call.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. The timeline, versions, and both repro cases really help.

This is a known issue we’re already tracking. In some cases the image finishes generating on our side, but the result never makes it back to the client. Because of that, the tool call stays stuck in Working forever. Important note: interrupt + retry won’t help here. Each retry starts a brand new generation and hits the same wall, so it’s better not to keep looping it.

A couple notes on what you saw:

  • The save path %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\projects\<slug>\assets is expected for the local agent, so that part looks correct.
  • Since this looks like a large payload delivery issue over streaming, it’s worth checking your network. Run Cursor Settings > Network > Run Diagnostics, and try enabling Disable HTTP/2 in App Settings, then open settings with Cmd+ , or Ctrl+ , and search for HTTP/2. This can help on corporate networks, VPNs, and proxies where large frames get blocked. No guarantee, but it’s a quick check. Let me know if anything changes.

I can’t share an ETA yet, but I’ll post an update in the thread as soon as I have one.