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Additional Information
Add any other context about the problem here.
Does this stop you from using Cursor?
Yes - Cursor is unusable
Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor
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!
In-document (fragment) links in markdown preview don’t work — e.g. table-of-contents links like [Section](#section) in a README. Clicking them either shows “The file is not displayed in the text editor because it is a directory” or “Unable to open ‘README.md’” / “The editor could not be opened because the file was not found.” In one workspace setup, clicking “Create File” then tried to create C:\README.md (operation not permitted).
Steps to Reproduce
Open a repo that has a README.md with a table of contents (e.g. fragment links #section).
Open the README in Cursor and switch to Preview (or open preview side-by-side).
Click any in-document link (e.g. a TOC entry).
Observe: link doesn’t scroll to the section; instead see “directory” or “file not found” (and in some setups, wrong path like C:\README.md).
Expected Behavior
Clicking an in-document link should scroll the preview (or editor) to the target heading, same as in VS Code and on GitHub.
A previous thread (“Links in plan docs not clickable”) said the latest version fixed link issues; that may apply to Plan docs. In-document links in regular .md preview are still broken in 2.6.18.
I am having the same issue. The AI was unable to fix it. I was finally forced to Google search for a solution, and ran into this thread. It seems the issue is known by the Cursor Dev team but not yet fixed.
In Cursor Markdown preview, internal anchor links in a README Table of Contents do not navigate to headings in the same file. Cursor appears to treat links as filesystem paths/directories instead of in-document anchors.
Open Cursor markdown preview.
Click the TOC link (#data-note).
Expected Behavior
Preview scrolls/navigates to the ## Data Note heading in the same document.
Operating System
MacOS
Version Information
Cursor (latest as of Apr 15, 2026)
macOS (Darwin 25.3.0)
File: README.md
For AI issues: which model did you use?
Opus 4.6
Additional Information
Full bug report:
Title
Markdown preview in Cursor does not resolve internal TOC links (#anchor) correctly
Summary
In Cursor Markdown preview, internal anchor links in a README Table of Contents do not navigate to headings in the same file. Cursor appears to treat links as filesystem paths/directories instead of in-document anchors.
Environment
Cursor (latest as of Apr 15, 2026)
macOS (Darwin 25.3.0)
File: README.md
Repro steps
Open a markdown file with headings and TOC links:
Open Cursor markdown preview.
Click the TOC link (#data-note).
Expected behavior
Preview scrolls/navigates to the ## Data Note heading in the same document.
Actual behavior
Link does not navigate as an in-document anchor.
Cursor appears to interpret it like a path target.
Additional notes
Tried workaround links like ./README.md#data-note; Cursor then reports it cannot find README.md in preview.
Same markdown links work in GitHub and standard Markdown renderers.
Impact
TOCs are effectively unusable in Cursor preview for longer docs, reducing docs navigation and maintainability.
Hey, this is a known issue. The Markdown preview doesn’t handle anchor links like #section and local file links correctly. Instead of navigating within the document, Cursor tries to treat them as file paths.
This affects both macOS and Windows across different versions. The team is aware, and your reports help us prioritize it. There’s no specific ETA yet, but we’re tracking it.
