Where does the bug appear (feature/product)? Cursor IDE — file links in the Chat / Agent panel (Windows)

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Describe the Bug
On Windows, clicking a local file link generated in the Chat/Agent panel fails to open the file. Cursor shows an “Unable to open …” dialog with the message “Unable to resolve resource”, and the path in the error is displayed percent-encoded — the backslashes appear as %5C instead of being decoded back to .
It looks like the resource resolver does not decode the %5C sequences. Instead of resolving the path, it appears to look for a literal path that contains %5C, which of course does not exist — hence the “resolve” failure.
Example error detail:
C:%5CUsers%5C%5CDesktop%5Cexample.docx
(the actual path is C:\Users<user>\Desktop\example.docx)
This started after a recent update, so it looks like a regression. It affects both clickable file links and “Open file” actions, regardless of file type (reproduced with .docx, but the encoded path is the root issue).
Steps to Reproduce

On Windows, have the Agent create or reference a local file and produce a clickable link to it in chat (e.g. C:\Users<user>\Desktop\example.docx).
Click the link / “Open” button.
Observe the “Unable to open … / Unable to resolve resource” dialog showing the %5C-encoded path.

Expected Behavior
The link resolves and opens the file — or, for non-text files such as .docx, hands it to the OS default application.
Actual Behavior
“Unable to resolve resource” with a percent-encoded (%5C) Windows path; the file never opens.
Workarounds found

Opening the same file via Ctrl+P (Go to File) works.
Writing the path with forward slashes (C:/Users//Desktop/example.docx) or as a file:/// URI avoids the problem, since no %5C is produced.
“Developer: Reload Window” sometimes helps temporarily.

Steps to Reproduce

Let Agent create a link.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Cursor_RDuH6D1CFx.png
Cursor_RDuH6D1CFx.png499×436 11.2 KB

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 3.6.21 (user setup)
VS Code Extension API: 1.105.1
Commit: e7a7e93f4d75f8272503ecf33cedbaae10114a10
Date: 2026-05-28T21:45:36.072Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.220
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. This is a known bug on Windows: Windows paths with a drive letter (C:\...) in chat links are mistakenly treated as a URI scheme, so the backslashes get encoded as %5C and the file can’t be resolved. We’ve reported the issue internally, but there’s no ETA for a fix yet.

The workarounds you found are correct, confirmed:

  • Open the file via Ctrl+P Go to File
  • Use forward slashes C:/Users/<user>/Desktop/example.docx or a file:/// URI, then %5C won’t appear

I’ll post an update in the thread once we have one.