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Add option to deactivate all cursor skills #130
Description
Right now it is impossible to deactivate cursor skills and they are in fact re-synced so my workaround attempt to remove them could not work.
This is a crucial aspect for me since I absolutely do not wish for a single skill to be there that I do not actively opt-in.
The agent is automatically doing things I actively do NOT wish for and I can not prevent that.
The tokens being spend on each session are also something that should be made visible, since even the description of the skill is token cost.
Thus, please please please implement an option to opt-out of the skills and do not auto actively them ideally.
Activity
Tokenlaxx commentedon Jun 22, 2026
+1 on opt-out / explicit enable semantics. Related findings from Cursor CLI (
agent, 2026.06.19) on Linux that may help this thread:Ground truth for "enabled" plugins
Not
~/.cursor/plugins/cache/— it's SQLite:Despite the key name
installedIds, the value is the enabled plugin ID list only (numeric marketplace IDs).Install vs disable vs uninstall (observed + plugin docs)
~/.cursor/plugins/cache/cursor-public/<slug>/installedIds.*; cache retained (plugin stays available for re-enable)/plugin uninstall <name>— removes from installed scope; reinstall from marketplaceUX gaps (CLI-first workflow)
/pluginsis a marketplace browser — lists cached/disabled plugins alongside enabled ones with no clear ENABLED vs CACHED-OFF label. Easy to believe disable failed when the cache dir still exists.agentData.cacheStorage.agentEnvironment.slashMenuItems.*(same vscdb)./resumesessions can retain old plugin context; new session needed after toggling plugins off.Workaround
Local script reads vscdb + cache dirs and prints ENABLED vs CACHED-OFF per slug (maps marketplace IDs via listing pages). Example:
compound-engineering(680) can show CACHED-OFF whilecursor-team-kit(677) is ENABLED — clarifies why/pluginslooks "all installed."Ask
/plugins; don't surface disabled plugin slash commands in autocomplete.Cross-refs: forum slash-menu cache threads (#161008, #159078), granular disable (#159799).
ssmphngs338-art commentedon Aug 22, 2026
{
"name": "google-calendar",
"displayName": "Google Calendar",
"version": "1.0.0",
"minClientVersions": {
"cursor": "3.13.0"
},
"description": "Search events and schedule meetings.",
"author": {
"name": "Cursor",
"email": "plugins@cursor.com"
},
"homepage": "https://github.com/cursor/plugins/tree/main/third_party/google-calendar",
"repository": "https://github.com/cursor/plugins",
"license": "MIT",
"logo": "assets/logo.svg",
"keywords": [
"google-calendar",
"calendar",
"google",
"mcp",
"events",
"workspace"
],
"category": "productivity",
"tags": [
"calendar",
"events",
"mcp",
"google-workspace"
],
"mcpServers": "./mcp.json"
}
deanrie commentedon Oct 5, 2026
Hey @BridgeAR, late answer, and a straight one: there is still no setting that turns off the built-in Cursor skills, and because they're re-synced into
~/.cursor/skills-cursor/on start, removing them by hand doesn't hold, as you found. The per-skilldisable-model-invocationfrontmatter would stop the agent from auto-selecting a skill, but you can't edit the built-in files for the same re-sync reason, so it doesn't help here.What exists today: the agent only picks a skill when a request matches its description, so a user rule saying "do not invoke built-in skills unless I name one with a slash command" works in practice, though it's a prompt-level control, not a hard one. Third-party plugin skills are a different story: those you can disable per plugin in Customize or Settings → Plugins, and the CLI has
agent pluginfor the same.You're asking for two things, and I've filed both as a product request: an opt-out (or opt-in) for the built-in skill set, and visibility into what the skill descriptions cost in context. No ETA I can give, but it's in front of the right team now rather than sitting here.