This is tied to your account’s privacy setting. Projects run their work on Cloud Agents, which need to store code on our servers, so they aren’t available while your account is on Privacy Mode (Legacy). At startup, Cursor shows the Projects section before it has finished loading your privacy setting, then hides it once it does. The section going away is expected with Legacy mode, but it shouldn’t flash on screen first, and I’ve passed that along to the team.
If you’d like to use Projects, you can switch to the standard Privacy Mode (your code is still never used for training):
In the Privacy section, change “Privacy Mode (Legacy)” to “Privacy Mode”.
Fully quit Cursor and open it again.
Open Cursor Settings, go to the Privacy section, and check that it no longer says “(Legacy)”.
After that, the Projects section should stay in the sidebar. If it still disappears, or Cursor Settings still shows “(Legacy)” after step 4, reply here and let me know.