C/C++ Extension no longer working for Remote SSH - cannot debug remotely

[Heriberto_Delgado]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

The C/C++ extension ( C/C++ - Visual Studio Marketplace ) is not working anymore for Remote SSH connections. The extension refuses to install in the remote host, and no explanation for the failure is given - the install fails silently.

This used to work before. Now I’m unable to debug code using Cursor IDE, and am forced to go with Visual Studio Code, with no access to Cursor AI. Please help.

Steps to Reproduce

Install the “C/C++ Extension Pack” from Microsoft.
Connect to a Remote SSH host. (WSL appears to work correctly).
Open a project. Ensure the entry in launch.json is defined correctly for that project using “type”: “cppdbg”.
Press the “Start Debugging (F5)” button.

Expected Behavior

Instead of a debug session starting, a message saying “Configured debug type ‘cppdbg’ is not supported.” and 3 options appears.
Close the message without selecting any option.
Select “Extensions” in the IDE, and check the “C/C++ Extension Pack” or the “C/C++” extension. You will see a button saying “Install in SSH: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX”. Pressing the button does something for a second, then goes back to show the same button, with no perceivable changes anywhere.
Unsure whether there are any logs recording any failure - could not find any.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.6.35 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: b753cece5c67c47cb5637199a5a5de2b7100c180
Date: 2025-09-19T17:40:36.856Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Additional Information

(By “unusable” in the “Does this stop you from using Cursor” option below, I mean “unusable in the context of Remote SSL debugging”. Just to clarify.)

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

[ravirahman]

Hi @Heriberto_Delgado, cppdbg and cppvsdbg are not supported in Cursor. We do support using the lldb debugger via the CodeLLDB extension.

[Heriberto_Delgado]

I’m afraid I need to insist on this.

What you just said, does not make sense, actually, as cppdbg is currently working fine in Cursor when connected to Windows Subsystem for Linux in my local machine, which as you already know it is (kind of) seen as a remote machine connection.

In fact, I’m at this very moment in a debugging session with one of the executables I created at work, connected to WSL and holding execution at a breakpoint, with no problems so far.

If WSL works, then I cannot figure out a reason why Remote SSL would not work. Hence my report to you guys.

Do you think you can take a second look at what could be going on here?

[ravirahman]

Hi @Heriberto_Delgado, you are correct – cppdbg should be supported.

However, we do not support the “C/C++ Extension Pack” from Microsoft. Could you uninstall that and instead install the Anysphere C/C++ Extension (anysphere.cpptools) in the SSH environment?

[Heriberto_Delgado]

Thank you, @ravirahman . The Anysphere extension worked like a charm!

Also, now I’m realizing that, regarding Cursor, I should probably look for extensions provided by the company itself .

In any case, I appreciate your help regarding this. Thanks, again!