Migrating VS Code Extensions to Cursor (2026)

By 2026, the debate is no longer about whether AI belongs in the code editor. It is about how deeply it should be integrated. For years, developers treated AI as a plugin. It was just a sidebar chat or a polite autocomplete suggestion. Visual Studio Code (VS Code) reigned supreme as the extensible king of this era.

However, the landscape has shifted. Cursor, an AI-native fork of VS Code, has moved from a niche alternative to a dominant standard. High-velocity engineering teams are adopting it rapidly. It treats the Büyük Dil Modeli (LLM) not as a plugin, but as a pair programmer. This AI has read and write access to your entire codebase.

For CTOs and Lead Developers, the question isn’t “Should we switch?” It is “How do we switch without breaking our existing workflows?”

Migrating to Cursor is deceptive. Because it is a fork of VS Code, it feels familiar. Yet, the underlying machinery is fundamentally different. It handles extensions and marketplaces in a new way. This guide provides the definitive technical roadmap for migrating your extensions, settings, and workflows.

The “One-Click” Promise vs. Reality

For 80% of users, the migration is instantaneous. Upon first launch, Cursor detects your existing VS Code installation. It then offers a “One-Click Import”.

How It Works

Cursor scans your default .vscode directory and attempts to clone your environment:

Extensions: It reads your extension list and re-downloads compatible versions.
Keybindings: Senin keybindings.json is mapped over, preserving your muscle memory.
UI State: Themes, icon packs, and window layouts are replicated.

To trigger this manually:

Open Cursor.
Press Cmd+Shift+J (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+J (Windows) to open Cursor Settings.
Navigate to General > Account.
Under “VS Code Import,” click Import.

When It Fails

The one-click import is not magic. It frequently fails in specific scenarios:

VS Code Insiders: If you run the Insiders build, Cursor often looks in the wrong directory.
Remote Development: Extensions installed on remote SSH servers or DevContainers are not always pulled automatically.
Proprietary Extensions: This is the most critical hurdle.

Automation is only as good as its exception handling. Just as our Google E-Tablolar Toplu Yükleyici cleans messy data before injection, you must “clean” your expectation of a 1:1 import. Expect to spend 30 minutes manually tuning the 20% that fails.

The Marketplace Gap: Open VSX vs. Microsoft Marketplace

This is the single most important technical detail to understand about your migration.

VS Code pulls extensions from the Microsoft Visual Studio Marketplace. This marketplace is proprietary. Microsoft’s Terms of Service explicitly forbid non-Visual Studio products from using it.

Cursor, therefore, pulls extensions from the Open VSX Registry. This is an open-source alternative maintained by the Eclipse Foundation.

The Conflict

While 90% of extensions are cross-published to both registries, Microsoft’s proprietary extensions are not. If your workflow relies heavily on the following, you will encounter friction:

Pylance (Python): Proprietary to Microsoft.
C# Dev Kit: Heavily restricted.
C/C++ (ms-vscode.cpptools): Often blocked.
Live Share: Microsoft proprietary.

The Fix: Sideloading and Alternatives

You have two strategies to bridge this gap.

Strategy A: The VSIX Sideload (The “Grey Area” Method)

You can manually install an extension file (.vsix) into Cursor.

Go to the VS Code Marketplace in your browser.
Download the extension’s .vsix file.
In Cursor, open the Extensions pane (Cmd+Shift+X).
Drag and drop the file into the pane, or use the “Install from VSIX…” command.

Warning: As of late 2025, Microsoft added code checks to some extensions. They may prevent activation in forks like Cursor. If sideloading fails, you must use Strategy B.

Strategy B: The Open Source Pivot

For every locked-down Microsoft tool, there is often a superior open-source alternative. These work natively in Cursor:

Instead of Pylance: Kullanım BasedPyright. It is faster, open-source, and plays perfectly with Cursor’s indexing.
Instead of MS C++: Kullanım clangd. It is widely considered more robust for C++ navigation and refactoring.
Instead of GitHub Copilot: You don’t need it. Cursor Tab outperforms Copilot by utilizing a larger context window of your local files.

Migrating settings.json: The Nervous System of Your IDE

Senin settings.json file dictates how your editor “feels.” While the importer attempts to copy this, power users should do a manual audit.

Locating the Files

VS Code: ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json
Cursor: ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/User/settings.json

The “AI Conflict” Audit

When moving your settings, you must remove or disable settings that conflict with Cursor’s AI features.

Remove these lines if present:

// Remove from Cursor settings.json to avoid conflicts
"github.com.copilot.enable": true, 
"editor.inlineSuggest.enabled": true, // Conflicts with Cursor Tab

Add these Cursor-specific optimizations:

// Add to Cursor settings.json
"cursor.cpp.enablePartialAccepts": true, // Allows accepting half a line of AI code
"cursor.general.shadowWorkspace": true,  // Improves codebase indexing

Migrating settings is a micro-cosm of building a proprietary software stack. At Thinkpeak.ai, we believe businesses should own their infrastructure. Whether it’s a custom low-code app or a bespoke internal tool, we help you architect systems that you control.

Explore Custom App Development Services

Syncing Across Devices

One major loss when leaving VS Code is the “Settings Sync” feature. Cursor does not currently sync with the Microsoft Settings Sync server.

The Solution: Settings as Code

To keep your Cursor instances synced between your laptop and desktop, use a Gist or a Dotfiles repository.

Extension: Install the “Settings Sync” (Shan Khan) extension from Open VSX.
Configuration: Point it to a private GitHub Gist.
Upload: Shift+Alt+U to push settings from your main machine.
Download: Shift+Alt+D to pull settings to your secondary machine.

Configuring the “Digital Employee”: .cursorrules

The most powerful “extension” in Cursor isn’t an extension at all. It is the .cursorrules file.

In VS Code, you configure the editor. In Cursor, you configure the Yapay Zeka Ajanı. By placing a .cursorrules file in the root of your project, you give the AI specific instructions on how to behave. It acts like a System Prompt for an LLM.

Example .cursorrules for a Next.js Project:

You are an expert Next.js developer.
- Always use Tailwind CSS for styling.
- Prefer functional components over classes.
- When writing APIs, always use the App Router (app/api), not the Pages Router.
- If I ask for a database query, use Prisma syntax.

When you migrate a project to Cursor, adding this file instantly “onboards” the AI to your team’s coding standards.

Configuring .cursorrules is training a specialized agent for code. We take this concept to the enterprise level. We build Özel Yapay Zeka Temsilcileri that can reason, make decisions, and execute tasks across your Sales, HR, and Operations departments 24/7.

Learn About Custom AI Agent Development

Troubleshooting Common Migration Errors

Even with a perfect plan, things break. Here are the three most common error messages during migration and how to fix them.

1. “Extension requires a newer version of VS Code”

Cursor is a fork. Sometimes it is a few weeks behind the absolute latest “upstream” version of VS Code.

Düzelt: You cannot force the update. You must install a slightly older version of the extension. Go to the extension in the marketplace, select “Install Another Version,” and pick one released 1-2 months prior.

2. “Authentication Failed” (GitHub/GitLab)

Tokens often don’t migrate securely.

Düzelt: Sign out of GitHub/GitLab within Cursor and sign back in. You may need to regenerate Personal Access Tokens (PAT) if you use them for private package registries.

3. Keybinding Conflicts (Cmd+K)

In VS Code, Cmd+K is a chord prefix. In Cursor, Cmd+K is the primary trigger for “Generate Code”.

Düzelt: Embrace the new way. Cursor’s AI generation is the reason you switched. However, if you must revert, search “Cursor: Open Chat” in Keyboard Shortcuts and rebind it to Cmd+L veya Cmd+Shift+K.

Beyond the Editor: Automating the Developer Lifecycle

Migrating to Cursor is a step toward efficiency. You are removing manual friction and replacing it with AI acceleration. But why stop at code generation?

A developer’s day is filled with non-coding tasks that drain productivity. Writing cold emails, updating Jira, summarizing meetings, or optimizing SEO for documentation takes time.

Thinkpeak.ai offers a suite of automation tools designed to handle these peripheral tasks. This lets you stay in Cursor doing what you do best.

Automate Your Outreach: The Cold Outreach Hyper-Personalizer scrapes prospect data and generates high-conversion icebreakers.
Automate Your Content: The SEO-First Blog Architect researches keywords and generates fully formatted articles directly into your CMS.
Automate Operations: The AI Proposal Generator ingests client discovery notes and creates branded PDF proposals.

Visit the Automation Marketplace to see how we turn manual operations into self-driving ecosystems.

Conclusion: The New Standard

Migrating from VS Code to Cursor is more than swapping apps. It is a shift in mindset. You are moving from an environment where you type characters to an environment where you curate logic.

By following this guide, you will have a development environment that feels familiar but performs exponentially better. Utilize the one-click import, navigate the Open VSX limitations, and configure your .cursorrules. The future belongs to those who build faster.

Sıkça Sorulan Sorular (SSS)

Does Cursor steal my code?

Cursor offers a “Privacy Mode” where no code is stored on their servers. For enterprise users, they offer zero-data-retention agreements. However, your code is sent to the LLM provider for processing, similar to how GitHub Copilot works. Always check your company’s compliance policy.

Can I run VS Code and Cursor simultaneously?

Yes. They are completely separate applications with separate configuration folders. You can keep VS Code installed as a backup while using Cursor as your daily driver.

Why doesn’t the “C#” extension work in Cursor?

The official C# Dev Kit is proprietary to Microsoft. It is blocked from running on non-Microsoft IDEs. The community recommends using the Muon veya OmniSharp based extensions available on Open VSX.

Will I lose my VS Code themes?

No. Most themes like Dracula or Material Theme are open source. They are available on Open VSX and usually migrate perfectly during the initial import.

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