UX for opening a workspace is totally broken

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1

Repro:

  1. open multiple workspaces in the IDE
  2. close them or have them force-closed
  3. re-launching them opens the AGENTS window, one instance per workspace.

Expected behavior: the IDE view should re-open.

ALSO - opening a workspace directly launches the agents window and NOT the IDE.

AND when you click the “IDE” button it does not launch the workspace you had tried to open, it launches the workspace of whichever chat happens to be open in the agents window.

HOW are you meant to actually open the IDE to a specific workspace?

This is so non-intuitive I have to assume it is a bug?

2

Hi there!

We detected that this may be a bug report, so we’ve moved your post to the Bug Reports category.

To help us investigate and fix this faster, could you edit your original post to include the details from the template below?

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Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

  • Editor, Tab & Chat (autocomplete, Composer, in-editor agent)
  • Terminal & commands
  • Models, pricing & API keys (availability, Auto/Max, BYOK/Bedrock)
  • MCP & tools
  • Cloud Agents & Automations (cursor.com/agents, scheduled/event)
  • BugBot & Code Review
  • Cursor CLI
  • Cursor Mobile
  • Remote (SSH / Dev Containers / WSL)
  • Account, billing & login
  • Something else…

Describe the Bug
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Steps to Reproduce
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  1. …
  2. …
  3. …

Expected Behavior
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Screenshots / Screen Recordings
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Operating System

  • Windows 10/11
  • MacOS
  • Linux

Version Information

  • For Cursor IDE: Menu → About Cursor → Copy
  • For Cursor CLI: Run agent about in your terminal
IDE:
Version: 2.xx.x
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: ......

CLI:
CLI Version 2026.01.17-d239e66

For AI issues: which model did you use?
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Request ID: f9a7046a-279b-47e5-ab48-6e8dc12daba1
For Background Agent issues, also post the ID: bc-…

Additional Information
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Does this stop you from using Cursor?

  • Yes - Cursor is unusable
  • Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor
  • No - Cursor works, but with this issue

The more details you provide, the easier it is for us to reproduce and fix the issue. Thanks!

6

Hey @Trevor_Lee, thanks for the report.

When the Agents Window was the last window you used, opening a folder or workspace from outside Cursor (double-clicking it, right-click “Open with Cursor”, or cursor <path> in a terminal) is routed into the Agents Window as a new agent instead of opening the IDE. And the IDE button in the Agents Window always opens the IDE for whichever agent/chat is currently selected, so if the workspace you just opened didn’t become the selected one, you get the previous workspace instead.

To open the IDE for a specific workspace directly, any of these work today:

  1. In the Agents Window sidebar, right-click the workspace (project) and choose “Open in IDE”.
  2. Select any chat in that workspace, then press Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd+Shift+N on Mac) or use File > Open IDE.
  3. To stop the Agents Window from taking over launches, open Cursor Settings > General > Window Restoration and set it to “Last Used Windows”. With that set, folder and workspace opens land in the IDE as long as the last window you were using was an IDE window (so close the Agents Window before quitting, or quit from an IDE window).

The part where relaunching opens several Agents Windows at once, one per workspace, is not expected and I’d like to dig into it. Could you share:

  1. Your OS (Windows / macOS / Linux) and Cursor version (Cursor > About Cursor > Copy). If you’re not on the latest version, please update first and check whether it still happens.
  2. How you normally open a workspace: double-clicking a .code-workspace file, right-click “Open with Cursor”, cursor . in a terminal, or File > Open Folder.
  3. A quick test: set Window Restoration to “Last Used Windows” as above, open two workspaces in the IDE, close Cursor normally (File > Exit, or Cmd+Q on Mac) rather than force-closing it, and relaunch. Do you get two IDE windows back, or Agents Windows again? If Agents Windows, how many?