Google Antigravity 2.0 Broke My IDE: Fixing the Missing File Explorer and Workspace Bug

After updating Google Antigravity to version 2.0.1 or higher, users may find that both the IDE and agent launchers open the same agent-focused interface instead of the traditional workspace, making the IDE layout appear missing. The issue stems from the update separating Antigravity into two layers, with the new app.asar package prioritizing the agent interface. A workaround involves renaming the app.asar file and restoring the old profile folder to recover the classic IDE view and extensions.

If you recently updated Google Antigravity to version 2.0.1 or higher and suddenly lost: you’re not alone. After updating, both: started opening the exact same agent-focused interface on my system, with the normal IDE layout completely missing. This guide explains: Based on the observed behavior after the 2.0.1 update, Google appears to have separated Antigravity into two distinct layers: An agent-focused interface centered around: The traditional Electron-based development environment containing: The problem is that after the update, both launchers can end up opening the same agent-focused interface instead of the IDE workspace. That makes it look like: Fortunately, the actual project files and chat databases are still stored locally. After updating to 2.0.1+, you may see: This is especially alarming if you rely on Antigravity as your primary development workspace. The fastest workaround is to temporarily rename the updated app.asar package so the IDE falls back to its original workspace renderer. Fully close: Use Task Manager if necessary. app.asar Open PowerShell as Administrator and run: cd "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Antigravity\resources" Rename-Item app.asar app.asar.bak Now launch Antigravity IDE normally. On my system, this restored: Based on testing and reports from other users, the updated app.asar package appears to prioritize the newer agent-first interface layer. Renaming it forces Electron to bypass that package and fall back to the original IDE rendering flow. This is not necessarily the official intended architecture, but it consistently restored the classic IDE interface during testing. If you ever want to restore the newer agent interface again, simply reverse the rename: Rename-Item app.asar.bak app.asar After restoring the IDE view, you may still notice: That happens because the update generates a new configuration directory. Your old data still exists — it just lives in the previous profile folder. Close Antigravity IDE completely. Then: Win + R %APPDATA% You should now see two folders: Antigravity Antigravity IDE Open: Antigravity Copy the folder named: User Then paste it into: Antigravity IDE When Windows prompts: choose: Replace files in destination This restored: Some extensions may still fail to appear after restoring the profile. This appears related to extension indexing after the update. Navigate to: C:\Users\<YourUsername \ Copy the contents of: .antigravity into: .antigravity-ide Then open: .antigravity-ide\extensions\ Delete: extensions.json This forces the IDE to rebuild the extension index during the next launch. After restarting Antigravity IDE, my extensions and themes reappeared correctly. Based on observed behavior and discussions from other developers, the issue appears related to: The update also appears to generate: That separation likely explains why: After completing the recovery process, verify: The confusing part of this update is that it initially looks catastrophic: In reality, most of the data still exists locally. The issue appears to be primarily: Hopefully future releases handle the transition more clearly, because the current behavior makes it feel like the entire IDE environment vanished overnight. If you ran into this issue too, I’d be interested to know whether the same workaround restored your workspace setup or if your installation behaved differently. Naveen Gaur is a full-stack developer focused on AI-native workflows, CMS systems, frontend performance, and developer tooling. More articles and case studies: