Cursor RTL Chat

Smart multi-language Right-to-Left (RTL) support for Cursor IDE chat, Plan files, and Markdown editors. Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian text is automatically right-aligned while English and code blocks stay left-to-right.

Features

• Smart direction detection — analyzes each chat message and applies dir="rtl" or dir="ltr" per element
• Mixed-language support — Hebrew/Arabic/Persian paragraphs align right; English-heavy content stays left
• Code-safe — code blocks, terminals, tool calls, and UI controls remain LTR
• Plan editor support — RTL works in Cursor Plan markdown views
• Markdown editor support — optional RTL in Cursor's native Preview view and the classic side preview (cursorRtl.mode: Chat and Markdown). The Markdown source/edit view stays LTR so typing is not disrupted.
• Status bar indicator — click to enable, disable, or check status; warns if the runtime did not load after a Cursor update
• Auto-reapply — restores the patch automatically after Cursor updates (configurable)
• Tunable mixed-language scoring — cursorRtl.rtlThreshold controls how easily mixed lines become RTL

Requirements

• Cursor IDE (not VS Code)
• Windows, macOS, or Linux

Installation

From GitHub Release (recommended)

1. Download cursor-rtl-1.2.6.vsix from Releases
2. Verify SHA256 (see checksums.sha256)
3. Install:

cursor --install-extension cursor-rtl-1.2.6.vsix

Or press Ctrl+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX... → select the file.

From Open VSX

Search Cursor RTL Chat in Cursor Extensions (after publishing to Open VSX).

From source

git clone https://github.com/Satan2049/cursor-rtl.git
cd cursor-rtl
npm install
npm run release:prepare

Press F5 in Cursor for development, or install the generated .vsix.

Usage

1. Ctrl+Shift+P → Cursor RTL: Enable RTL Support
2. Confirm the patch dialog
3. Fully quit Cursor (File → Exit) and reopen
4. Open chat — RTL text aligns automatically

Use the status bar or Settings (cursorRtl.mode): Chat only (default), Chat and Markdown, or Disable (temporary). Remove patch uninstalls the Cursor file patch; it does not uninstall the extension.

Status bar

Indicator	Meaning
RTL: CHAT	Patch active, chat only
RTL: CHAT+MD	Patch active, chat and Markdown
RTL: DISABLED	Patch installed, RTL temporarily off
RTL: NOT INSTALLED	Patch not applied — click to enable
RTL: UPDATE NEEDED	Cursor was updated — click to re-apply
RTL: NO RUNTIME	Patch is installed but the workbench RTL script was not detected

Commands

Command	Action
Cursor RTL: Enable RTL Support	Apply the RTL patch
Cursor RTL: Disable (Keep Patch)	Temporarily stop RTL without removing the patch
Cursor RTL: Remove Patch	Restore original Cursor files
Cursor RTL: Re-apply After Update	Re-apply after a Cursor upgrade
Cursor RTL: Check Status	Show patch status in Output panel
Cursor RTL: Toggle Disabled	Switch between disabled and the last active mode

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
cursorRtl.mode	chat	Chat only, Chat and Markdown, or Disabled (temporary; does not remove the patch)
cursorRtl.rtlThreshold	1.5	RTL-run weight versus Latin tokens (0.5–4). Higher = mixed lines more often RTL
cursorRtl.autoReapply	true	Auto-reapply patch when Cursor updates overwrite main.js
cursorRtl.showStatusBar	true	Show RTL status in the status bar

Security

Verify downloads with SHA256:

Get-FileHash -Path cursor-rtl-1.2.6.vsix -Algorithm SHA256

Expected hash for v1.2.6:

BFDC4F13B5CBE4AB1962F0861CE9891404B9F5C20EFCB9546E62C078A67B8921

Official checksums: checksums.sha256

VirusTotal page for this build:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/bfdc4f13b5cbe4ab1962f0861ce9891404b9f5c20efcb9546e62c078a67b8921

How it works

This extension patches Cursor's main.js to load a small Electron loader. The loader concatenates config, rtl.css, shared direction scoring, and rtl.js, then injects that payload into the workbench so it can:

1. Watch the chat DOM for new messages
2. Score RTL vs LTR characters per text block (cursorRtl.rtlThreshold)
3. Apply direction: rtl / text-align: start to matching elements
4. Keep code blocks, Monaco editors, and tool UI in LTR

The same runtime also styles Cursor's native Preview | Markdown editor (without writing dir into ProseMirror-owned DOM). The classic Markdown side preview uses contributed preview CSS/scripts and reads cursor-rtl-mode.json so Chat-only mode does not rewrite user markdown.styles.

Original main.js is backed up before patching. Disabling restores from backup.

Note: Cursor may show an [Unsupported] warning because the patch modifies internal app files. This is expected for workbench-level RTL injection.

Troubleshooting

Changes not visible after enabling

• Fully quit Cursor (not just Reload Window) and reopen
• Check Output → Cursor RTL for errors

Permission denied

• Windows: run Cursor as Administrator
• macOS: sudo chown -R $USER Cursor.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/

RTL stopped after Cursor update

• Click the status bar warning, or run Re-apply After Update
• Enable cursorRtl.autoReapply for automatic restoration
• If the bar shows RTL: NO RUNTIME, fully quit Cursor after re-apply so the workbench script can load

Debug log

• Loader writes to ~/cursor-rtl.log

Uninstall

Uninstalling the extension runs a cleanup script that restores main.js from backup if the patch is still active.

Third-party components

The RTL runtime script (resources/rtl.js) is adapted from cursor-ext-rtl (Apache-2.0). See THIRD_PARTY.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.