Cursor 3: styles of my light theme got messed up

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

The styles of the Chat Pane and Settings were overwritten by some extremely contrast colors.

Steps to Reproduce

This happened after Cursor updated to v3.

Expected Behavior

The default light theme colors of Cursor IDE to remain usable.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.0.12
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: a80ff7dfcaa45d7750f6e30be457261379c29b00
Date: 2026-04-04T00:13:18.452Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Early Access
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.2.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

Hey, thanks for the report. I can see the screenshots, this is a known issue with how Cursor 3 handles light themes. Right now, in some places like Chat Pane and Settings, colors can look wrong, too high contrast or not matching the main theme.

The team is aware. As a workaround, try switching to the built-in Cursor Light theme if you’re not already using it. It’s the best supported in the current version. Use Cmd+R then Cmd+T, then pick Cursor Light.

Which theme are you using right now, Light+, a custom one, or Cursor Light?

1 Like

Thanks for the quick reply - I’m using a custom one.

Got it. Custom VS Code themes aren’t fully supported in Cursor 3 yet, so the Chat Pane and Settings only use the built-in themes Cursor Dark, Cursor Light, and Cursor Dark High Contrast. That’s why the colors look broken.

The team is aware of this limitation.

Can I subscribe for updates on the issue somewhere? There are no specific styles I can manually edit to solve this in the mean time?

Unfortunately, there’s no manual workaround via settings.json or workbench.colorCustomizations for the Chat Pane or Settings. In Cursor 3, those parts are rendered by a separate theme engine that doesn’t support custom themes yet.

About the subscription, you can just follow this thread. Once custom theme support is added, we’ll post an update here. For now, the only working option is the built-in Cursor Light theme.

1 Like

Will do, thank you.

This issue also affects the default cursor light theme. The new color theme seems to be broken in the light theme, even when using one of the official themes.

Hey @Serubin, I see the screenshot, the colors are definitely broken. Can you check if any extensions or settings are affecting this:

  1. Cmd+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P > Profiles: Create a Temporary Profile
  2. This will start a clean profile with no extensions and no custom settings
  3. Pick the Cursor Light theme and check if the issue still happens

Also, can you share your Cursor version from Help > About. I’m looking for the version number and the Release Track.

If it still happens in a clean profile, the team is aware of theme issues in Cursor 3, and I’ll pass this along. If it doesn’t, we’ll dig into a specific extension or setting.

Hi @deanrie

The issue persists with the temporary profile on the light theme :frowning:

Info about the release:
Version: 3.0.12
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: a80ff7dfcaa45d7750f6e30be457261379c29b00
Date: 2026-04-04T00:13:18.452Z
Layout: editor
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 25.4.0