How to Fix the Antigravity IDE Broken Workspace & Update Loop

Woke up to your Antigravity IDE auto-updating, only to leave you trapped in a basic chatbot window? Tried downgrading back to your previous setup, but got hit with a frustrating "version no longer supported" error?

You aren't alone. With the launch of the new workspace architecture, Google has officially split the developer platform into four distinct surfaces. Unfortunately, due to overlapping configurations, many developers are finding themselves locked out of their code editors. Here is the step-by-step recovery plan to get your workspace back up and running.

Note: The core issue stems from the split between Antigravity 2.0 (the agent manager backend) and the standalone Antigravity IDE client. Below, we break down exactly how to clear out the colliding folders, terminate lingering threads, and secure your editor layout.

What Actually Happened: The Split

As part of the latest updates, the Gemini CLI ecosystem is transitioning. Google is unifying the workspace stack into two core user interfaces:

Antigravity 2.0: The new standalone Agent Manager and Chat UI panel.
Antigravity IDE: The VS Code-style workspace editor complete with file tree navigation, workspace access, and integrated terminal panels.

Because of this sudden transition, both surfaces are competing for the exact same local configuration directories under your system's user profile (specifically in %APPDATA%). When they conflict, the IDE loses its layouts and defaults back to a raw chatbot view, refusing to load the local file tree.

Step-by-Step Recovery Guide

Step 1

Perform a Configuration Wipe

To resolve the broken layout loop, you have to completely break the active configuration collision. This requires deleting folders that might be holding outdated window states:

First, close all open Antigravity and IDE windows.
Press Win + R on your keyboard to open the Windows Run dialog.
Type %APPDATA% and press Enter. Locate and delete the Antigravity folder.
Press Win + R again, type %LOCALAPPDATA%, and press Enter. Locate and delete the Antigravity or antigravity-updater folders.

                    # Clean paths to delete manually or via terminal:
                    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:APPDATA\Antigravity"
                    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Antigravity"
                    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\antigravity-updater"
                

Step 2

Kill Zombie Background Processes

Before running any new installers, you must completely empty your system's memory cache. Lingering background services will intercept the new layout structure, causing the fresh installer to freeze on launch:

Open your Windows Task Manager using the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
Look through the background list for any lingering Antigravity.exe processes.
Select them and click End Task (Force Kill).

⚠️

Crucial Step: You must restart/reboot your PC right after ending these processes. This ensures all active handles on the config folders are completely released.

Step 3

Download the Correct x64 Surface

Do not click the main default download link on the main landing site. This will often serve the incorrect manager client package. Instead, follow these steps:

Open your browser and go directly to: antigravity.google/product/antigravity-ide
Scroll down past the hero elements to the dedicated section at the bottom of the page.
Locate and explicitly click to download the Antigravity IDE for x64 client.
Run the installer. This will set up a clean, authorized 2.0 editor shell containing your file explorer and terminal panels!

Step 4

Lock the Auto-Update Mode

Once your workspace layout is restored and your coding models are working correctly, block the background updater from auto-deploying the wrong surface again:

In the editor, open the Settings panel using Ctrl + ,.
In the search box, search for Update Mode.
Set the value to none.

Alternatively, you can edit your global config file directly. Add this line to your settings.json:

                    {
                      "update.mode": "none"
                    }
                

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Remember: If you ever run a manual update in the future, check your %APPDATA% configuration folders first to ensure they aren't being overwritten by conflicting clients.

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