Persistent "The terminal process failed to launch" error

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

A persistent error popup stating “The terminal process failed to launch: Starting directory (cwd)” appears and blocks user input after a worktree folder has been deleted. Once triggered, the error continues to reappear and cannot be dismissed unless the agent window is closed or the missing directory is recreated.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Create a worktree via the command line.
  2. In the Agents Window, open a new workspace using the worktree path.
  3. Perform an action or request a task.
  4. Open and then close a terminal for that worktree
  5. Archive the agent associated with this worktree.
  6. Delete the worktree folder.

Switch to a different agent.

Actual Result
Under certain conditions, the “The terminal process failed to launch: Starting directory (cwd)” error popup displays repeatedly, obstructing the interface. The issue is intermittently reproducible, but once it occurs, it persists until the agent session is terminated or the folder is manually restored.

Expected Behavior

It shouldn’t show the error as all terminal related to the agent is terminated.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Bug-Report.png
Bug-Report.png356×133 8.68 KB

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.2.11
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: e9ee1339915a927dfb2df4a836dd9c8337e17cc0
Date: 2026-04-24T14:36:47.933Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.4.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report with steps and the version, that really helps.

This is a known bug. When a worktree folder gets deleted, old terminal instances tied to that workspace don’t get cleaned up when the agent is archived or you switch agents. They keep trying to start with a working directory that no longer exists, which is why you see the toast spam. The issue has been reported internally, but I can’t share a fix timeline yet.

Temporary workaround until it’s fixed: after deleting the worktree folder, close the agent window or close the whole workspace to kill the stuck terminal instances. Or archive or delete agents before deleting the folder itself.

If there’s an update on the fix, I’ll reply in the thread.