C# debugger stdin not forwarded to process — integratedTerminal and externalTerminal broken for interactive .NET console apps

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

stdin is not forwarded to .NET console apps during debugging, regardless of the console setting in launch.json. Interactive console input is silently ignored, making it impossible to debug apps that require keyboard input.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open a .NET console app that uses Console.ReadLine() or Console.ReadKey()
  2. Configure launch.json with "type": "coreclr" and "request": "launch"
  3. Try each console mode:
"console": "internalConsole" — stdin not received
"console": "integratedTerminal" — input typed but never forwarded to process
"console": "externalTerminal" — terminal window never opens
  1. Press F5, wait for app to prompt for input, type + Enter
  2. Input is ignored / process errors: error: 0x80070057

Expected Behavior

integratedTerminal should forward stdin to the debugged process, allowing interactive .NET console apps to work normally under F5 debugging.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.6.11 (system setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 8c95649f251a168cc4bb34c89531fae7db4bd990
Date: 2026-03-03T18:57:48.001Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.6.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

5

Hey, this is a known issue with the Anysphere C# extension. It still doesn’t fully support the console setting in launch.json. All three options (internalConsole, integratedTerminal, externalTerminal) are basically ignored, and debugging always runs through the Debug Console, which doesn’t support stdin.

There was a similar report with the same problem: Cannot use externalTerminal

As a workaround, you can run the app without the debugger (dotnet run in the terminal), or use input via arguments or files instead of Console.ReadLine() or Console.ReadKey() while debugging.

I’ve passed this to the team. No ETA yet, but your report helps us prioritize it.

6

Thanks for the quick reply. Hoping to find a solution quickly, our org has lots of console apps.

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