With the recent 3.0 update, I noticed in the Agents Window, syntax highlighting is completely broken for certain languages. In my case, it’s Vue components. I have the official Vue extension installed and am able to edit Vue files normally in the Editor view just fine, but the Agents Window > Files view appears not to be applying syntax highlighting correctly.
Would love to see this corrected — it would be nice to be able to work exclusively in the Agents Window and read everything as if it’s in the Editor view.
If you guys haven’t already, why not just use the Editor view’s components directly in the Agents Window for this UI so they’re sharing the same experience that respects my display preferences, extensions, etc.? If you are already, it seems like this is a minor bug maybe.
Come to think of it, I don’t see any way to change the Language mode for the file you’re currently viewing, like you can in the Editor.
Steps to Reproduce
Open the Agents Window in an existing Vue project
Open a Vue file in the Files view
See that no syntax highlighting is applied to the Vue file
Expected Behavior
Vue files (and all other languages) should apply the appropriate syntax highlighting for the Language mode applied.
Hey, thanks for the detailed report and the screenshot. I can see the issue. The Vue file shows up without syntax highlighting in the Agents Window.
This is a known bug. Syntax highlighting from extensions, including Vue and Volar, doesn’t always load correctly in the Agents Window. It works fine in the normal Editor, but in the Glass file viewer the extension grammars may not get registered.
The team is aware of this. There’s no exact ETA for a fix yet, but your report helps us prioritize it.
About changing the language mode in the Agents Window, that’s a valid point too. That option isn’t available right now.
This single issue is keeping me away from using the Agent window. I work in a big Vue project, and not having the syntax highlighting is a really bad experience.
Hey, thanks for getting back to us. The bug is still on our side. I added your cases .twig, Elixir .ex, plus the Vue feedback to the original report in our tracker. There’s no ETA for a fix yet, but extra votes help us prioritize it.
@Egor1 about Cmd+click / go-to-definition in the Agents Window, that’s related but it’s a separate issue. It’s LSP in Glass, and we’re tracking it separately. If there are any updates on syntax highlighting, I’ll post them here.
I have this exact issue with Nuxt/Vue. No syntax highlighting, tab completion, or intellisense (e.g. jumping to function definitions) from language server. Not sure if these VS Code extensions were supposed to be supported in the first place or not.
I’d like to make sure that the scope for this ticket includes more common languages like typescript, for me *.ts and *.tsx files are also not syntax highlighting. I feel like I’m coding in notepad (not even notepad++) again.
Hey, unfortunately there are no updates since last time. The issue is still being tracked in our tracker, but I can’t share an ETA for the fix yet. I noted your bump, and I’ll reply in the thread as soon as there’s any news.
Hi, I registered for the forum specifically to post this reply.
I’ve noticed that this issue has become worse starting from 3.3.
Previously, when opening a new file in Cursor from an associated external application (such as Unity or Godot), it would open first in the VS Code–based Editor (so the highlighting was perfect).
After 3.3, however, even if I have both the Editor and the Agent Window open at the same time, files are forced to open through the Agent Window (the version without highlighting).
And I don’t want to turn off the Agent Window for this reason either.
Before Cursor’s Agent Window was released, I had always been a user of Cursor + Codex App or Cursor + terminal claude. They could work together; in Codex App, I could click a file link and open it in the Cursor editor, and so on.
The previous Agent Window provided the same experience, which was great.
But the recent changes have clearly made things worse.
My proposal is also very simple: please add an option in Settings that allows users to decide whether files should preferably open in the Editor Window or the Agent Window.
Please believe me, I represent the silent majority. When someone like this needs to register on a forum to talk about an issue—especially when things used to work very well for them—it is most likely related to some missing functionality in the design.
Also, I don’t think this is a particularly difficult feature, so please be sure to consider it carefully.
For now, I have temporarily switched back to the Cursor editor + Codex app workflow. This change has made your own Agent Window lose its competitiveness in actual work.
On syntax highlighting, there aren’t any updates since last time yet. The issue is still being tracked. As soon as we have news, we’ll follow up in the thread.
About routing files from external apps (Unity, Godot, etc.) into the Agent Window instead of the Editor after 3.3, that’s a separate issue and not related to syntax highlighting. To avoid mixing topics in one thread, it’s best to raise this concern separately. There are already a few active threads about similar behavior you can join:
If none of those match your Unity or Godot case and the OS file association flow, please create a new bug report with screenshots and exact steps to reproduce. That makes it easier for the team to prioritize.
Hey @deanrie — adding another language to this tracker: OpenTofu .tofu files have no syntax highlighting in the Agents Window’s Files/Changes view.
These are HCL files (same syntax as Terraform .tf), and highlighting is provided by the official HashiCorp Terraform extension (hashicorp.terraform). As with the other cases here, it renders correctly in the classic Editor but shows up as plain grey text in the Glass viewer — consistent with the extension-grammar registration issue you described.
To reproduce:
Install the HashiCorp Terraform extension (hashicorp.terraform).
Open a .tofu file in the Agents Window Files view.
No HCL highlighting is applied (works fine in the classic Editor).
Would appreciate .tofu / HCL being added to the tracked list. Thanks!
@raz-drift: OpenTofu .tofu and HCL via hashicorp.terraform
It looks the same for everyone: in the Agents Window Glass file viewer, syntax highlighting based on file extensions doesn’t apply, even though the same file renders correctly in the normal Editor.
I’ll post an update in this thread as soon as I hear more.
