Hey, thanks for the detailed report with the full error output. That really helps.
It looks like the latest CLI build 2026.09.02-c22c1a3 isn’t compatible with your macOS version. That’s why it aborts right at startup dyld can’t load the required symbol from libc++. Your previous version worked fine, so a good workaround is to roll back to that version and run with auto-update disabled so the CLI doesn’t pull the new build again.
Try this in Terminal:
Check which versions are still on disk:
ls ~/.local/share/cursor-agent/versions/
Pick the newest folder that is NOT 2026.09.02-c22c1a3 I’ll refer to it as <OLD_VERSION> below.
Does it start normally? If yes, great. If it still crashes or the flag isn’t recognised, send the full output from the commands in steps 1 and 3.
A couple of honest notes: a pinned version won’t get updates, and at some point the server-side minimum client version might stop accepting it. We’re tracking the situation for macOS 12 on Intel Macs that can’t upgrade past Monterey, and I’ll post here if there’s an update.
No older version found. Only one entry shows - 2026.09.02-c22c1a3. Is there any way to explicitly install an older version of cursor cli?
I debugged somewhat myself and found that this is the root cause - /usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib missing from my system. And there’s no way to put this file at /usr/lib/ anyhow. I have checked every way to find if this file is usually present in the system in a hidden way (which it usually & certainly is), but couldn’t find this. Or couldn’t restore/put it. Nothing works, refreshing the system, x-code, etc.
I guess my older mac is bricked. ¯\(◉‿◉)/¯
Few months back chrome stopped upgrading, then codex stopped working and now cursor. Time to install a compatible Linux distro, I guess. I’m just hoping that there’s a good support of cursor cli on Linux.
Hey, thanks for digging into the root cause yourself. Your diagnosis is correct, and your Mac isn’t bricked.
The issue isn’t that /usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib disappeared from the system. The latest CLI build bundles a newer runtime that requires macOS 13.5+, and it references a symbol __libcpp_verbose_abort that simply doesn’t exist in libc++ on Monterey. So this isn’t a file you can “restore”. On macOS 12, that symbol never existed. That’s why reinstalling Xcode or refreshing the system doesn’t help.
About rolling back, the method from the previous message only works if an older build is still in ~/.local/share/cursor-agent/versions/. After the auto-update, you only have 2026.09.02-c22c1a3 left and the older ones were cleaned up, so there’s nothing to switch to. There’s currently no official way to install or pin a specific older CLI version via the installer on macOS 12, so honestly, I don’t have a working way for you to run the current CLI on Monterey right now.
I’ve passed this on to the team, specifically for macOS 12 on Intel Macs that can’t upgrade past Monterey. If we find a workaround, I’ll reply here.
On Linux, the CLI is officially supported and works fine, so as a fallback plan that’s a solid option. Let me know if anything else comes up.