Accessibility: support prefers-reduced-motion in AI chat panels

Feature request for product/service

Chat

Describe the request

When the agent is working, the chat panel includes several animated elements: the “Planning next moves…” text pulses, there are spinning indicators, shimmer/skeleton effects, and so on. There is currently no way to turn these off.

A setting that replaces these with static equivalents would be highly appreciated. Plain “Generating…” text, a still icon instead of a spinner, and so on. It would ideally also activate automatically when the OS-level prefers-reduced-motion preference is set.

This would help on two fronts:

  • Accessibility. Pulsing and flashing content is problematic for people with photosensitive epilepsy or vestibular disorders. WCAG 2.2 (SC 2.3.3) recommends that animation triggered by interaction be disableable. The prefers-reduced-motion media query has been standard for years, and VS Code already respects it for its built-in UI. Cursor’s AI panels should follow suit.
  • Focus. When reading generated output or working in a split editor, constant motion in peripheral vision makes it harder to concentrate. A static label communicates the same information (the agent is thinking) without the visual noise.

Nothing about generation behavior or streaming output needs to change, just the decorative animation surrounding it. A contained change for a meaningful quality-of-life improvement.

Thanks for considering it.

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