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Cade's Dotfiles

Cursor computer use reports Ready: no, or screenshots never appear

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Source: Troubleshooting reference

Symptom: agent worker debug shows a worker, but Computer use Ready: no and screenshot or click tasks fail. The My Machines worker may be loaded.

Confirm:

Terminal window
launchctl print "gui/$(id -u)/dev.cade.cursor-worker"
ls -d "$HOME/.cursor/cursor-computer-use/Cursor Computer Use.app"
agent worker debug

Root cause: computer use is implemented by Cursor Computer Use (co.anysphere.cursor-computer-use), a helper installed on the first --computer-use start. Accessibility and Screen Recording must be granted to that app, not Terminal or Cursor.app. Sequoia and later may re-prompt Screen Recording. agent worker debug does not prove those grants. This repo does not write TCC.db.

Only one worker daemon can own ~/.local/share/cursor-agent. Cursor’s in-app worker (often named like church) holds that lock without computer use. df-cursor-worker passes --wait so the LaunchAgent waits for that process instead of crash-looping. To take over with computer use, stop the in-app worker, then bash ~/dotfiles/install/cursor.sh sync-worker.

Fix: open System Settings → Privacy & Security, grant Accessibility and Screen Recording to Cursor Computer Use, then rerun a screenshot task. If the helper app is missing, start the worker once (bash ~/dotfiles/install/cursor.sh sync-worker) so it can install, then grant TCC. To stop the worker: DF_CURSOR_WORKER=0 bash ~/dotfiles/install/cursor.sh.

Cloud /in-cloud sessions use native VM computer use and dashboard MCP, not this Mac’s helper app or ~/.cursor/mcp.json.