IDE detection reports "vscode" when running inside Cursor

Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened Apr 7, 2026 by nullvariant Closed May 18, 2026

Summary

The Claude Code VS Code extension reports the IDE as vscode in the system prompt even when running inside Cursor. This is visible in the ide_selection tag and the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT=claude-vscode.

Environment

  • Actual IDE: Cursor 3.0.12 (arm64, macOS)
  • Extension version: anthropic.claude-code-2.1.92-darwin-arm64
  • Installed at: ~/.cursor/extensions/
  • VS Code is not installed (code --version → not found)

Evidence

Cursor sets its own environment variables that could be used for differentiation:

CURSOR_SPAWNED_BY_EXTENSION_ID=anthropic.claude-code
CURSOR_EXTENSION_HOST_ROLE=user
CURSOR_LAYOUT=unifiedAgent

Additionally, all VSCODE_* paths point to Cursor/ directories:

VSCODE_CODE_CACHE_PATH=.../Cursor/CachedData/...
VSCODE_IPC_HOOK=.../Cursor/3.0.-main.sock

Expected behavior

The IDE should be reported as cursor (or similar) when running inside Cursor, since CURSOR_* environment variables and the application paths clearly distinguish it from VS Code.

Impact

Low severity — does not affect functionality. However, it can cause confusion when IDE-specific context is injected into prompts, and any analytics or telemetry based on this field would misattribute Cursor usage as VS Code.

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