Cursor can’t detect conda env created by Miniforge (Homebrew), VSCode can

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Problem
I installed Miniforge via Homebrew and created a conda environment named env311.
VSCode can detect and select this interpreter, but Cursor cannot see it.

Steps to reproduce

Install Miniforge via Homebrew
Create env: conda create -n env311 python=3.11
Open Cursor and run “Python: Select Interpreter”
Expected
env311 appears in the interpreter list.

Actual
env311 is missing.

Environment

macOS: (fill in)
Cursor version: (fill in)
Miniforge path: /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/condabin/conda
What I tried

python.condaPath: /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/condabin/conda
python.defaultInterpreterPath: /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/envs/env311/bin/python
Start Cursor from terminal (cursor .)
Terminal output in Cursor

conda info -e

base /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base
env311 /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/envs/env311

type -a conda
conda is /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/condabin/conda

Steps to Reproduce

install Miniforge via Homebrew and create a conda environment named env311 with Python=3.11
Select the interpreter when edit jupyter file and you will find cursor can’t detect the env311 but at the same time, VSCode can detect it normally.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

截屏2025-12-25 18.20.06.png
截屏2025-12-25 18.20.06.png1768×788 40.6 KB

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Cursor Version: 2.2.43
VSCode Version: 1.107.1
Arch: arm64

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, thanks for the report. I tried reproducing this on a similar setup (macOS arm64, Miniforge via Homebrew, Cursor 2.2.x), and conda environments are detected correctly on my side.

From your screenshot, when selecting a kernel it only shows the system Python 3.9.6. Please try this:

  1. Add this to your settings.json (Cmd+, > Open Settings JSON):
{
  "python.condaPath": "/opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/condabin/conda",
  "python.venvPath": "/opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/envs"
}
  1. Fully restart Cursor (Cmd+Q, then open it again)

If that doesn’t help, a few questions:

  • When selecting a kernel, if you click “Select Another Kernel…” > “Python Environments…”, do you see env311 there?
  • If you run Cmd+Shift+P > “Python: Select Interpreter”, do you see the environment there?
  • Please check Output > Python Cmd+Shift+U. Are there any errors?

Let me know whether this helps.

4

Thanks for the suggestions! I tried them in order:

  1. Added to settings.json:
    {
    “python.condaPath”: “/opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/condabin/conda”,
    “python.venvPath”: “/opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/envs”
    }
  2. Fully restarted Cursor (Cmd+Q and reopen)

These 2 steps didn’t work.

Results to your questions:

  • “Select Another Kernel…” > “Python Environments…”: env311 did NOT appear.
  • “Python: Select Interpreter”: env311 did NOT appear.

Output > Python / Jupyter showed errors:

  • ms-python.vscode-python-envs crashed on refresh: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'map')
  • Jupyter failed to start: CANNOT use API proposal: portsAttributes

So the issue was extension failure rather than conda config.

Fix: I reinstalled the Jupyter extension and restarted Cursor. After that, kernels started normally and env311
appeared.

Thanks again for the help!!!

1 Like