Plugin marketplace sync is stale, causing "Update/Reinstall" in Settings to have no effect

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Environment:

OS: macOS (darwin 25.5.0)
Cursor version: Version: 3.11.13
Description: The zion-nocode plugin (marketplace: GitHub - functorz-tech/zion-nocode-plugin · GitHub) does not update when clicking “Update/Reinstall” in Settings → Plugins. The version number stays on an old release.

Evidence (two levels of staleness):

Layer Path Version Commit
Latest on GitHub main

2.1.5
610a207 (Jul 13)
Cursor’s local marketplace mirror
~/.cursor/plugins/marketplaces/github.com/functorz-tech/zion-nocode-plugin/
2.1.3
b873e39 (Jul 12, 2 releases behind)
Actually active plugin cache (still stale after reinstall)
~/.cursor/plugins/cache/zion/zion-nocode/
2.0.21
2f8d02c (Jul 5, 6 releases behind)
Suspected root cause: Cursor’s locally cached marketplace git mirror never fetched the latest commits from GitHub. As a result, clicking “Update/Reinstall” in Settings just re-applies the same stale local snapshot instead of actually re-syncing with the remote repo.

Steps to reproduce:

Install the zion-nocode plugin from this marketplace.
In Settings → Plugins, click reinstall/update.
Check ~/.cursor/plugins/cache/zion/zion-nocode/*/.cursor-plugin/plugin.json for the version field → it remains on the old version, unchanged.
Expected behavior: Clicking Update/Reinstall should force a fresh fetch of the latest commit from the marketplace source, not reuse the stale local cache.

Steps to Reproduce

null

Expected Behavior

null

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.11.13

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Version: 3.11.13

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

Version: 3.11.13

Additional Information

Version: 3.11.13

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report with the screenshot and the staleness breakdown, it really helps. Your intuition is right: Update/Reinstall reinstalls the same local snapshot instead of pulling the latest commit from GitHub.

This is a known bug and we can reproduce it on our side. A personal marketplace added via /add-plugin with a GitHub URL gets pinned to the commit that was current when it was first added, and re-adding it or using Update/Reinstall won’t move it forward. So it’s not your config.

The most reliable workaround right now is to install the plugin as a local development plugin: clone the repo locally and put it in ~/.cursor/plugins/local/<plugin-name> (or symlink that folder to your local checkout). That path indexes the plugin from disk as it is right now and bypasses the stuck marketplace cache. Clearing ~/.cursor/plugins/cache and ~/.cursor/plugins/marketplaces doesn’t reliably move the pin, so don’t count on that.

I can’t share an ETA for a fix yet, but I’ll attach your report to the issue. Once there’s an update, I’ll reply in the thread. The same problem is discussed here, you can subscribe: /add-plugin GitHub imports can get stuck on stale plugin versions