How to Fix Cursor Not Indexing Your Codebase

Diagnose why Cursor's codebase answers feel blind and force a clean re-index so it sees your whole project again.

6 minIntermediate

Visit Cursor

When Cursor answers as if it has never seen your other files, its codebase index is usually stale or incomplete. The fix is to confirm the index status, clear it, and rebuild. This guide walks the diagnosis and the clean re-index.

What you need

Cursor open on the affected project
A few minutes for the index to rebuild
About 6 minutes total

Step 1: Confirm the symptom

Ask a question that requires the wider codebase. If Cursor cannot find a function you know exists, the index is the suspect.

Cursor - blind answer

You

Where is parseInvoice defined?

Agent

I could not find parseInvoice in the indexed files. (But it exists in src/lib/invoice.ts.)

A missing index makes Cursor unaware of existing code.

Step 2: Check the index status

Open Settings and find the codebase indexing section. A status stuck at a low percent, or an error, points straight at the cause.

Cursor - index status

Settings > Codebase Indexing

Status: 38% (stalled)

Last error: too many ignored paths

[ Resync Index ] [ Delete Index ]

The index is stalled well below complete.

Step 3: Check .cursorignore

An over-broad ignore file can exclude real source. Open .cursorignore and make sure it only excludes build output and dependencies, not your code directories.

.cursorignore

node_modules/
dist/
build/
.next/
# do NOT ignore src/ or app/

Step 4: Delete and rebuild

Delete the index and resync. A clean rebuild fixes a corrupted or partial index. Wait for it to reach complete before testing again.

Cursor - clean rebuild

Delete Index -> confirmed

Resync Index -> indexing...

Status: 100% complete (1,284 files)

Now parseInvoice resolves to src/lib/invoice.ts

A full rebuild restores codebase awareness.

Big repos take a moment

On a large monorepo the first index can take several minutes. Let it finish before judging the result; a half-built index gives exactly these blind answers.

Result: a clean, complete index, so Cursor sees your whole project again and stops answering as if half your files do not exist.