cSpell not working in cursor

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1

spell checker is working in panel, but no highlight in editor

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3

Hey, this looks like a compatibility issue with cSpell’s custom decoration rendering in Cursor. The extension detects errors fine (they show up in the Problems panel), but its custom underlines don’t render.

The most likely fix: open Settings and search for cSpell.useCustomDecorations, set it to false. This switches cSpell to use standard VS Code diagnostic rendering instead of its own. After that, reload the window using Ctrl+Shift+P then Reload Window.

If underlines still don’t show, also check:

  • cSpell.diagnosticLevel should be Information or higher
  • editor.renderValidationDecorations should be on

What Cursor version and OS are you on? And let me know if switching off custom decorations helps.

4

Version: 2.6.21
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: fea2f546c979a0a4ad1deab23552a43568807590
Date: 2026-03-21T22:09:10.098Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

I tried following your method by setting cSpell.diagnosticLevel to warning and cSpell.useCustomDecorations to false, but it still didn’t work.

Moreover, editor.renderValidationDecorations cannot be found in my settings.

5

Since neither useCustomDecorations: false nor diagnosticLevel: Warning helped, here are a couple things to check:

  1. Check if spelling issues are accidentally hidden

cSpell has a built-in toggle that hides all squiggles and removes them from the Problems panel, while still detecting issues in the background. It can get enabled by accident. Run this in the Command Palette Ctrl+Shift+P:

cSpell: Toggle Show Spelling Issues

If squiggles show up after that, that was the cause.

  1. Check the Extension Host logs for a conflict

Open Help > Toggle Developer Tools > Console, then reload the window. Look for this warning:

[warning] DiagnosticCollection with name 'cSpell' does already exist.

If you see it, the extension is registering its diagnostic collection twice, which can stop squiggles from rendering. This is a known issue that sometimes needs reinstalling cSpell or clearing its global state.

  1. Try switching to custom decorations instead

Since VS Code native rendering useCustomDecorations: false didn’t work, try the opposite:

"cSpell.useCustomDecorations": true,
"cSpell.textDecorationStyle": "wavy"

This switches to cSpell’s own rendering engine, which doesn’t depend on VS Code diagnostics.

Also, do squiggles from TypeScript or ESLint show up normally? That can help confirm if this is only cSpell, or a broader rendering issue in your setup.

6

cSpell: Toggle Show Spelling Issues The command solved my problem. It might have been turned off at some point without my knowledge. This issue was caused by myself. Thank you very much.

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