I’ve gone back to the old IDE layout, purely because Like to see files on one side, terminal along the bottom and chat on the right with browser preview in middle. Call me old fashioned, it just feels more controlled.
Is there anything I’m missing out on? Or is this layout possible in the new agent style version?
Also I can have multiple projects open in the old style, but not in the newer agent window. This is a another thing keeping me from moving across.
Anyone with me? I’m mostly bulding astro or nextJS sites.
I think the old Editor layout is still better if you prefer the traditional VS Code setup. I like having the files on the left, the terminal at the bottom, the browser/editor in the middle, and the chat on the right. That layout just feels more comfortable to me.
And the new Agents Window is still useful when you specifically want multiple agents working in parallel, which is what Cursor is optimizing it for.
Hey, thanks for the post. Sticking with the classic IDE window is totally fine, you’re not losing any functionality. Agents Window is an extra surface for running and switching between agents, not a replacement for the IDE.
On your questions:
IDE layout in Agents Window: partially. The left column projects and agents and the chat in the center are fixed, but the right panel is more flexible than it looks:
Open a file from the Files tab and the file tree will show up to the left of the editor inside that panel.
With a file open, press Cmd+JCtrl+J on Windows or Linux and the terminal opens split along the bottom of the panel.
Open the Browser tab for your dev server and drag it to the edge of the panel to split it into a separate area. You can drag any tab Files, Terminal, Browser to an edge to create a split.
If you want the chat on the right instead of the center, press Cmd+Shift+MCtrl+Shift+M and the panel expands to full width, and chat becomes a tab you can drag to the right edge. The same shortcut toggles back.
Multiple projects: you can keep as many projects as you want in Agents Window. Use the project picker at the top of a new chat Open Folder or Add Workspace and each project gets its own section in the left sidebar. You can reorder them by dragging. Each chat is tied to one project. What you can’t do yet is open a second Agents Window, or show two projects with files side by side in one window.
Switching between modes is easy. The IDE button in the top right of Agents Window opens the classic window for the current project.