Newest cursor CLI has broken node binary on WSL, "Exec format error"

Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor CLI

Describe the Bug

Fresh install on WSL is broken at launch because the included node binary is not executable for the platform, “Exec format error”

Steps to Reproduce

Install with curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash

Run cursor-agent

Output:

/c/Users/zachmu/.local/bin/cursor-agent: line 10: /c/Users/zachmu/.local/share/cursor-agent/versions/2025.10.02-bd871ac/node: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

2025.10.02-bd871ac

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hi @zachmu, Cursor Agent does not support the GIT Bash shell. It should work in WSL, though!

4

This is via WSL-1. Previously installed build worked fine. cursor-agent updated itself the last time I ran it, which caused this error. Fresh install after rm -rf on the installation directory leads to the error above.

6

Hi @zachmu, could you try using WSL2? WSL1 is not supported.

7

Unfortunately no, I can’t easily switch to WSL2.

Is there a workaround for getting this running on WSL1 that you know of? It certainly worked before, and many other node programs work in this same environment. Seems like the install script is just fetching the wrong node binary for some reason

9

Hi @zachmu, please see this as a potential workaround:

10

In my case I had already removed the entire cursor-agent/versions directory, but I was able to fix it by linking to my main node binary instead.

Would appreciate if you guys could look into fixing this, it is going to break itself again the next time it auto-updates.

12

@zachmu - this is actually a node problem - not a cursor one - if you update “node” on your WSL1, (unrelated to cursor) you will get the same problem as well (node itself is broken)… so beware “sudo apt update” for the time being!

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