Remote SSH: cursor-agent-exec never activates on remote extension host (3.12.30 + 3.13.10) — only git-base, provider registration timeout

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Agent fails on every Remote SSH session with:

The agent execution provider did not respond in time. This may indicate the extension host is not running or is unresponsive.
The remote cursor-agent-exec extension is present on disk but never activates on the long-lived remote extension host. Only vscode.git-base starts. The local client waits for remote provider registration and times out.
This reproduces across a clean reinstall of ~/.cursor-server and across two Cursor versions (3.12.30 and 3.13.10).

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Install/update Cursor on Windows (3.13.10).
  2. Remote-SSH: Connect to Host → connect to Ubuntu VM.
  3. Open a single remote folder.
  4. Developer: Reload Window (tried 1–2 times).
  5. Start any Agent request.

Expected Behavior

Remote extension host activates anysphere.cursor-agent-exec (and related agent extensions), registers the remote agent execution provider, and Agent runs tools against the remote workspace.

Actual Behavior

  • Agent fails after ~40–55s with provider timeout.
  • Remote extension host only ever activates vscode.git-base.
  • cursor-agent-exec exists on disk but has zero mentions in remoteexthost.log.

Error / Request IDs

  • 55d532c3-c5eb-4010-bf3c-e63519424333 (earlier session on 3.12.30)

Smoking gun — local renderer log (Windows)

[agent-exec] Provider registration timed out (attempt 1/9, timeout=30000ms), retrying [agent-exec] Provider registration timed out (attempt 2/9, timeout=5000ms), retrying … [agent-exec] Provider registration timed out (attempt 8/9, timeout=5000ms), retrying

Log path: %APPDATA%\Cursor\logs\20260727T110738\window1_wb4\renderer.log

Smoking gun — remote extension host log (VM)

After clean rm -rf ~/.cursor-server ~/.cursor and fresh reconnect on 3.13.10:
exthost4 — only extension that activated anything:
ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.git-base, startup: true, activationEvent: ‘*’ Extension activated success: vscode.git-base — 8ms

exthost1,2,3,5 — mostly just:
Extension host terminating: received terminate message from renderer

grep cursor-agent-exec across all exthost logs → NO MATCHES
Extension files are present:
~/.cursor-server/bin/linux-x64/4f02290ccd9304f0e6bf8ee85f6e9106f02ac1f0/extensions/cursor-agent-exec/ dist/ package.json patches/

Things ruled out

  • Full clean reinstall: rm -rf ~/.cursor-server ~/.cursor on remote + reconnect
  • Client/server commit mismatch — commits match
  • Missing extension on remote — cursor-agent-exec present on disk
  • inotify limits: fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288
  • Tested on two Cursor versions (3.12.30 and 3.13.10) — same behavior
  • Reload Window multiple times — no change

Possibly related

Similar reports:

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

  • Local client: Cursor 3.13.10 (user setup), Windows 10.0.26200 x64
  • Client commit: 4f02290ccd9304f0e6bf8ee85f6e9106f02ac1f0
  • Remote host: twozniak-auto5g (corporate dev VM, UTE/Nokia network)
  • Remote OS: Debian 13
  • Remote server commit: 4f02290ccd9304f0e6bf8ee85f6e9106f02ac1f0 (matches client)
  • Connection: Remote-SSH, single remote folder opened
    Also reproduced on:
  • Cursor 3.12.30, commit 63a2996a10d9e476b6c28e951dd7691d9c0cf480

Additional Information

Additional context

  • Multiple extension hosts per session (exthost1–5); most are short-lived (terminating within seconds/minutes).
  • Only one host activates extensions, and it only loads git-base.
  • ulimit -n on remote: 1024
  • Corporate VM environment; SSH and remote editing work fine — only Agent is broken.

Ask

Why is cursor-agent-exec never scheduled/activated on the remote workspace extension host, and what can we do to force it or work around it until a fix ships?

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

5

Hi @twozniak!

Thanks for posting this! I think I might have an idea of what’s going on.

The fact that vscode.git-base is activating and not vscode.git smells like a workspace trust issue.

Two quick things to check in the remote window:

  1. Is there a shield icon reading Restricted Mode in the bottom-left status bar?
  2. Open the command palette (Ctrl + Shift + P) and look for Workspaces: Manage Workspace Trust. If it’s there, does it show the folder you’re working in as trusted? It’s an equally interesting signal if that command doesn’t appear at all, that would mean workspace trust is switched off on your machine, and my theory is wrong.

If you are in Restricted Mode: trust the folder from that screen, then run Developer: Reload Window.

Either way, let me know what you see!

7

Thanks for the quick response!
Here is my view:

image
image1300×813 55.3 KB

Here You can see the agent time-out and trust setting.
Hope this narrows it down,

Tymon

8

Thanks, @twozniak!

We’re aware of a known issue where cursor-agent-exec fails to activate on Windows machines connected to Linux over SSH. The root cause appears to be related to Workspace Trust, but we haven’t pinned it down yet.

On that same Workspace Trust screen, could you scroll to the bottom and share a screenshot that includes at least the bolded entry (which indicates the trusted folder)?

image
image1920×1123 112 KB

Could you also try running Ctrl + Shift + P > Developer: Restart Extension Host and let us know whether that changes the behavior?

9

Version: 3.14.7 (user setup)
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: a758f2241ca99fecf380180b6cbdbbce0f1f42c0
Date: 2026-07-30T06:41:34.009Z
Layout: IDE
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.291
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Hi,
Seems like updating to version above fixed the issue, regarding Your question about trust settings:

image
I did not change anything and it plain works now,

Thanks!