PowerShell in Cursor is consistently broken — endless syntax errors (not isolated cases)

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Hello,

PowerShell execution inside Cursor has recently become almost unusable.
This is no longer an occasional issue — errors happen constantly, even with very simple commands, and even when using advanced models such as Opus 4.5.

Cursor frequently generates or executes invalid PowerShell syntax, resulting in endless parser errors. These issues occur repeatedly and are not isolated cases.

Examples (not exhaustive):

At C:\Users...\AppData\Local\Temp\ps-script-0a29c777-4962-4f1d-87ed-fb358ee79fc9.ps1:56 char:144

  • … ata\Local\Temp\ps-state-out-58f3f17b-acf9-4845-895b-4354e1269c58.txt"
  •                                                                     ~

The string is missing the terminator: ".
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:slight_smile: , ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : TerminatorExpectedAtEndOfString

And very frequently:

The token ‘&&’ is not a valid statement separator in this version.

Observed behavior:

CMD-style operators like && are generated and executed in PowerShell.

Long paths (especially with non-ASCII characters) often break string termination.

Errors occur even in trivial scripts.

Temporary scripts (ps-script-*.ps1) generated by Cursor frequently contain invalid syntax.

Re-asking the model to fix the script usually reproduces the same issues.

At this point, PowerShell automation in Cursor is unreliable and unstable, especially compared to Bash or Python workflows.

A clear, reliable solution or official workaround is needed (e.g. enforced PowerShell-safe syntax, proper command separation, or a stable execution mode).
Without this, PowerShell-based workflows are effectively blocked.

Steps to Reproduce

powershell

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.3.41 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 2ca326e0d1ce10956aea33d54c0e2d8c13c58a30
Date: 2026-01-16T19:14:00.150Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

Bug Report: PowerShell Commands Fail with “Duplicate Key” Error in Wrapper Script
3

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. This is a known issue with the new terminal tool on Windows. It generates CMD-style syntax (like &&) instead of PowerShell-compatible commands.

Try this workaround. It fixed the same issue for other users:

  • Open Cursor Settings with Ctrl+Shift+J
  • In the Agents tab, find Legacy Terminal Tool
  • Enable it
  • Ctrl+Shift+P → Terminal: Kill All Terminals
  • Fully restart Cursor
  • Test the commands again

This should switch you back to the older terminal tool, which handles PowerShell syntax correctly.

If it still doesn’t help, let me know. We’ll need the request ID from the broken chat so the team can check what’s being generated. You can get it via the top-right context menu → Copy Request ID.

Similar resolved cases: