Open Chat as Editor doesn't work on SSH instances and locks up the editor permanently for a opened folder on the SSH

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Cannot open SSH project if during previous connection “Open Chat as Editor” was used.

Steps to Reproduce

Connect editor to a remote SSH instance.
Open a particular folder in the editor via “open folder” on the remote machine.
Open chat and “Open Chat as Editor” via the triple dot menu.
This should not open the chat as editor and break.
Close remote connection.
Reconnect and open the folder again…cursor stays as a black screen.

Expected Behavior

To revert back to a usable state.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.4.21 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: dc8361355d709f306d5159635a677a571b277bc0
Date: 2026-01-22T16:57:59.675Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

4

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue. It’s already logged, and there’s an active thread with workarounds here: “Open Chat as Editor” causes permanent black screen when reopening project

For the SSH case (based on your video, it looks like you’re using Remote SSH):

Close Cursor completely, then on the remote machine delete the corrupted state:

rm -rf ~/.cursor-server
rm -rf ~/.cursor

On your local machine (Windows), find the workspace storage for this project:

  • Open %AppData%\Cursor\User\workspaceStorage\
  • Find the folder for your project (open workspace.json in each subfolder)
  • Delete state.vscdb and state.vscdb.backup in that folder (WARNING: this will delete all chat history, so make a backup first)

Reconnect over SSH and it should work.

Important: Until this is fixed, don’t use “Open Chat as Editor”. If you need the chat in the editor, just drag the chat tab into the editor area.

Let me know if it still doesn’t help.