Semantic search is not working

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Semantic search is not working in agent. Returns No result found

Steps to Reproduce

use ptompt like Check if Semantic Search is working. or Find XYZ using Semantic Search
Projec is full indexed
Model GPT-5.2

Expected Behavior

it should find something, file exist and is used.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

SS.png

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.4.28 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: f3f5cec40024283013878b50c4f9be4002e0b580
Date: 2026-02-03T00:56:18.293Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

For AI issues: which model did you use?

GPT-5.2

Additional Information

The cursor without semantic search loses its advantage in use in legacy projects compared to the competition.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

3

Hey, thanks for the report.

I’ll need a bit more info to debug:

  1. Check indexing: Cursor Settings > Indexing & Docs > View included files. This opens a .txt file with the list of indexed files. Do you see files from your project there?

  2. Request and status: Can you share:

    • The exact request text you sent to the Agent
    • A screenshot of the indexing status (Cursor Settings > Indexing & Docs)
    • The Request ID from the chat context menu (top right > Copy Request ID)

  3. Workspace type: Is this a single-root or multi-root workspace?

  4. Regular search: Does normal file search Ctrl+P and grep work in your project?

  5. .cursorignore: Do you have a .cursorignore or .gitignore with aggressive ignore rules?

The team is aware of a similar issue, but the details from your case will help us figure it out.

4

Hey, thanks for quick response.

  1. I see a list of files, and I’ve confirmed that this list contains the files I’m searching for. I see the list from two root workspaces.
  • Prompt:Check if Semantic Search is working.
  • image
    image687×636 19.3 KB
  • My organisation has set pivate mode, so I don’t think the Reqiest ID will be usefull.
  1. I worked with multi-root workspace, but when I removed one root and steyed with only one then semantic search works.
  2. Yes, search and grep works.
  3. I don’t have .cursorignore. I have .gitignore - witch is quite standard for .net project.
5

Thanks for the detailed follow-up, it’s really helpful.

The fact that semantic search works in a single-root workspace but not in a multi-root one matches a known issue. On Windows, semantic search in multi-root workspaces can have problems returning results.

The team is aware. Your report, and the clear “single root” vs “multiple roots” comparison, helps us prioritize this.

Workaround: use a single-root workspace, like you already found. If you need both projects, you can open them in separate Cursor windows.

I’ll update this thread when there’s progress on a fix.

7

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