Alt / Option with right / left for cursor movement on terminal

[TANWEERUL_HAQUE]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

using option + (right arrow / left arrow) moves cursor on terminal through words. this used to happen on previous cursor version but with the last 2 ones, this doesn’t happen. honestly, this is very frustrating because I use this a lot.

Steps to Reproduce

using option + (right arrow / left arrow) doesn’t move cursor through words on terminal.

Expected Behavior

using option + (right arrow / left arrow) should move cursor through words on terminal.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.7.17 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 34881053400013f38e2354f1479c88c9067039a0
Date: 2025-09-29T03:10:26.099Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

[condor (Condor (Tee))]

hi @TANWEERUL_HAQUE is this the Agent terminal (in Chat) or user terminal in bottom pane?

[TANWEERUL_HAQUE]

Sorry for not specifying it before, this is user terminal.

[sanjeed5 (Sanjeed)]

Thanks for the report, I’ve shared it with the team.

As a workaround till it’s fixed, you could try this https://forum.cursor.com/t/terminal-integrated-macoptionismeta-not-respected/135367/2?u=sanjeed5

[seanwessmith (Sean Smith)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

the terminal.integrated.macOptionIsMeta = true setting should allow mac users to use the option key in the terminal to jump to start or end of word via “⌥ + ←” or “⌥ + →” respectfully

Steps to Reproduce

set terminal.integrated.macOptionIsMeta = true and try to use “⌥ + ←” or “⌥ + →” in the terminal. Instead of jumping words it prints “D” or “C” respectfully

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.7.17 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 34881053400013f38e2354f1479c88c9067039a0
Date: 2025-09-29T03:10:26.099Z (15 hrs ago)
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.0.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[anton_frolov]

same here, started today. Sep 29th 2025

tmp solution:
add these to your ~/.zshrc file:
bindkey “^[^[[D” backward-word
bindkey “^[^[[C” forward-word

but please, cursor team, revert the thing

also noticed Cmd+N doesn’t create new terminal window anymore (having focus in terminal before hitting Cmd+N shortcut).

[seanwessmith (Sean Smith)]

thank you. one of the best hotkeys you can do is bind cmd+shift+1 to making a new terminal and cmd+1,cmd+2,cmd+3 etc to focus those terminals

[TANWEERUL_HAQUE]

This solution works where you can add a keybinding in cursor only to send in sequences to terminal: https://forum.cursor.com/t/arrow-no-longer-works/131926/18?u=tanweerul_haque

vscode or normal terminal do not break.

[Le_Quoc_Khanh]

God bless Cursor team!

Upgrade to the newest version, and the bug disappeared. It got me frustrated for 2 days.