Describe the Bug
Cursor fails to open devcontainer projects located on WSL.
This started happening when cursor started prompting me to install anysphere.remote-containers.
When opening the project in WSL and then follow the prompt suggesting to open this project using dev containers, I get the following error:
2025-07-22 08:25:09.003 [info] Spawned process 8880: 'C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor\Cursor.exe' 'c:\Users\****\.cursor\extensions\anysphere.remote-containers-1.0.18\dist\@devcontainers\cli\dist\spec-node\devContainersSpecCLI.js' 'read-configuration' '--workspace-folder' '\home\michi\dev\private\nextjs-auth' '--config' '\home\michi\dev\private\nextjs-auth\.devcontainer\devcontainer.json' '--docker-path' 'docker'
2025-07-22 08:25:09.003 [info] [read-configuration]: Running command: node
2025-07-22 08:25:09.496 [info] [read-configuration][stderr]: [2025-07-22T06:25:09.494Z] @devcontainers/cli 0.75.0. Node.js v20.19.0. win32 10.0.26100 x64.
2025-07-22 08:25:09.511 [error] [read-configuration]: Running command: node
2025-07-22 08:25:09.512 [error] Failed to read devcontainer config [read-configuration] Command failed with exit code 1: stdout:
2025-07-22 08:25:09.513 [error] Failed to reopen folder in container Failed to read devcontainer configuratio
I also use GitHub - michidk/vscli: A CLI/TUI that simplifies launching VSCode projects, with a focus on dev containers to open devcontainers. It uses the following command
cursor --folder-uri "vscode-remote://dev-container+7b22686f737450617468223a225c5c5c5c77736c2e6c6f63616c686f73745c5c417263685c5c686f6d655c5c6d696368695c5c6465765c5c707269766174655c5c6e6578746a732d61757468222c22636f6e66696746696c65223a7b22736368656d65223a2266696c65222c22617574686f72697479223a2277736c2e6c6f63616c686f7374222c2270617468223a222f417263682f686f6d652f6d696368692f6465762f707269766174652f6e6578746a732d617574682f2e646576636f6e7461696e65722f646576636f6e7461696e65722e6a736f6e227d7d/workspaces/nextjs-auth"
(built here vscli/src/workspace.rs at main · michidk/vscli · GitHub)
Which works just fine with code instead; and it used to work with Cursor as well. But now I get the following error:
Failed to install Cursor server: [devcontainer up] Command failed with exit code 1: stdout: {"outcome":"error","message":"Dev container config (c:\\Arch\\home\\michi\\dev\\private\\nextjs-auth\\.devcontainer\\devcontainer.json) not found.","description":"Dev container config (c:\\Arch\\home\\michi\\dev\\private\\nextjs-auth\\.devcontainer\\devcontainer.json) not found."}
Since the url is interpreted differently, I think anysphere.remote-containers is handling WSL differently than the vscode devcontainers extension.
Steps to Reproduce
Open any devcontainer
Expected Behavior
Cursor works
Operating System
Windows 10/11
Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)
Version: 1.2.4 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: a8e95743c5268be73767c46944a71f4465d05c90
Date: 2025-07-10T17:09:01.383Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100
Does this stop you from using Cursor
Yes - Cursor is unusable