Please add a persistent setting to always open the IDE, not the Agents Window

Ideas Feature Requests
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1

Feature request for product/service

Cursor IDE

Describe the request

I’m a long-time Cursor user and my primary workflow is the classic IDE: editor,
file tree, terminal. I use the agent as a tool inside that environment, not as a
replacement for it.

Since the Agents Window became the default entry point, I keep landing in an
interface I didn’t ask for and don’t want. Two specific problems:

  1. cursor . from the terminal opens the Agents Window. As far as I can tell,
    this code path ignores the startup setting in Cursor Settings entirely.
  2. General → Startup → Window Restoration → Last Used Windows only restores
    whatever window happened to be active last. It is not “always open the IDE”,
    so it’s easy to fall back into the Agents Window and hard to get out of.

The only reliable workaround I found is the --classic CLI flag, which is
marked “dev-only” in cursor --help. I’ve had to alias cursor to
cursor --classic in my shell config. Relying on an undocumented dev-only flag
for something this basic doesn’t feel sustainable — it can disappear in any
release.

What I’m asking for:

  • A first-class, documented setting (ideally a plain settings.json key) along
    the lines of “always open the Editor window”, that is respected by the CLI as
    well as by app launch.
  • cursor . should honor that setting instead of taking a separate path.
  • If --classic is going to remain the only way to do this, please promote it
    to a supported, documented flag.

I understand the agent-first direction and I’m not asking you to remove it. I’m
asking for the choice to stay mine. Right now the product decides for me on
every launch, and that friction is the single biggest reason I’ve started
looking at alternatives — which I’d genuinely rather not do.

Cursor version: 3.18.25 (arm64), macOS.

Operating System (if it applies)

MacOS

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