Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?
Cursor IDE
Describe the Bug
Subagents that are configured as read-only (readonly: true) fail to start and immediately return a refusal response (“I’m sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.”) even for trivial harmless prompts.
This appears to be a regression because it was working earlier today, and many workflow subagents depend on read-only mode.
There is also a related issue where subagent_type: “explore” fails even without readonly: true, while other non-readonly subagent types still work.
Steps to Reproduce
Launch a subagent with readonly: true and a minimal prompt (for example: “Reply with OK”).
Observe immediate refusal (“I’m sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.”).
Launch the same prompt without readonly: true using subagent_type: “generalPurpose” (works).
Launch subagent_type: “explore” without readonly (still refuses).
Expected Behavior
Read-only subagents should start successfully and perform read-only analysis tasks.
explore subagent should start successfully with valid prompts.
Behavior should be consistent with earlier today when these flows were working.
Operating System
MacOS
Version Information
Version: 2.5.26
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 7d96c2a03bb088ad367615e9da1a3fe20fbbc6a0
Date: 2026-02-26T04:57:56.825Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.4.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0
For AI issues: which model did you use?
subagent runtime (multiple subagent types tested).
For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled
f9a7046a-279b-47e5-ab48-6e8dc12daba1
Additional Information
Repro matrix (observed)
generalPurpose + readonly: false → works
shell + readonly: false → works
security-sentinel + readonly: false → works
any tested subagent + readonly: true → fails with refusal
explore + readonly: false → fails with refusal
High impact on workflow reliability: many specialized subagents are designed to run in read-only mode for safe analysis, and those workflows are now blocked.
Does this stop you from using Cursor
No - Cursor works, but with this issue