I run Windows with WLS. I installed Claude code inside the WLS environment. Cursor itself is running on the regular Windows file system. Now I am trying to connect Claude code to my Cursor using the /ide command, but I get the message that “No available IDEs detected” (See the screenshot attached). Also, I can not find a way to install the Claude code extension, it is NOT available in Cursor’s extension store. How do I move on from here?
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following this thread fix it for me: [BUG] Claude Code doesn't detect that the IDE is cursor · Issue #1279 · anthropics/claude-code · GitHub. Hope it helps!
Thanks! Trust me, i did just that, and also succeeded, see screenshot attached. And yet, when i come to the screen that i need to select an IDE i get the “not IDE found” error. I am pulling my hair here… is there any workaround for this?
Once thing that was key for me is that I uninstalled Cursor and reinstalled it using homebrew. Cause I installed Claude using homebrew so I think that they weren’t communicating properly.
Thanks, I reinstalled cursor, it did not help.
Why does such an essential thing need to be so complicated? This is so frustrating!
Can it be because Cursor runs on Windows file system, while the actual Claude code (and the Claude code extension) are installed inside the WLS environment?
Anybody from the Cursor team to talk to??
Hey, unfortunately the use of Claude Code isn’t something we directly can support!
Our terminal setup should be basically unchanged from VS Code, and it seems from the GitHub Issue above that this is more of an installation issue with Claude Code than a Cursor issue (apologies if I misunderstood the post)?
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claude code cannot connect to IDE on Windows because your cursor is installed on Windows and your Claude Code inside WSL
but you still can connect if using Mac OS or Ubuntu
Thanks! Yes, I run Ubuntu (WLS), and from there, I run Claude’s code without any problem.
Additionally, I can use Claude code also from within Cursor, but only with Cursor’s built-in WLS terminal, meaning I got to the point that BOTH Cursor and Claude code have full access to the same codebase of any project, which is great by itself.
However, the missing piece in the puzzle is the “real” integration, the ability to see how Claude code handle each individual file the way Cursor does, so I can actually “touch” the code in real time and modify it, just like I do with Cursor native work.
Do you think that would be possible somehow?
Would you recommend installing cursor inside the WLS environment and then try to integrate it with Claude code?
Thanks! No, no installation issue with Claude code whatsoever.
Both Cursor and Claude code works flawlessly.
The only issue is that, from within Cursor built-in WLS terminal, I can not connect it to Claude code, with the /ide command.
Hey, have you completed this step?
Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P) and run ‘Shell Command: Install ‘cursor’ command in PATH’ to enable IDE integration.
Thanks, Yes I tried that, it did not help.
For Claude code to recognize Cursor as an IDE option, the Claude code extension must be installed. Since I could not find this extension in the extension store, i just installed it manually in my Ubuntu WLS environment and got confirmation that the installation went successfully, just in case it might help you figure out what is going on here… any idea how to solve this issue?
As mentioned, Claude Code is built to (at least in VSCode) automatically install it’s extension when you run it in the terminal. I can’t speak to the specifics of installing it on Windows in WSL, but this would be something to raise on the Claude Code side I believe.
I don’t know of any behaviours or changes we have that should stop this from working as intended, so I would assume Claude Code has just not been build to support Cursor inside WSL.
If any figures out what the cause is here and it does turn our to be Cursor, we’d be happy to resolve it!
Technically, will it be possible to install cursor inside a WLS environment, and only then try to connect it to claude code? will cursor function perfectly and without any limitations inside a WLS environment, just like it does when its installed on a regular windows file system?
I had this issue as well and fixed it by copying my project into to WSL Ubuntu environment, opening cursor and linking to the WSL navigating to the project, and then using Claude and IDE commands. I can’t wrap my head around why this would have fixed the IDE situation, but it did, so I figured I’d share.
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How Claude code connect with IDE?
Claude Code will looking for PID of IDE
however wsl cannot get PID of windows app, so you can directly connected with IDE if using WSL
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I spent nearly two days 
figuring this out, and I finally managed to get Claude Code installed on Windows and integrated into Cursor!
In my case, even after successfully installing both Cursor and Claude Code, the /ide route still couldn’t detect Cursor — I tried all the usual solutions (adding to PATH, manually dragging the .vsix file, etc.) but nothing worked.
Eventually, I discovered the trick: you need to launch Cursor from a WSL terminal. Just open your WSL terminal and type cursor to start it. Make sure you navigate to your project folder inside the WSL environment (note that Windows files show up under /mnt/...), and open the project from there.
You don’t need to copy your entire project into WSL — just launching Cursor this way makes it work!
That said, this solution assumes you’ve already tried the basic setup steps mentioned earlier. If you skip those and jump straight to launching via WSL, it might still not work 
Hope this helps someone out there! 
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nah, jetbrains managed to do it too with their IDE suite ( e.g. PHPSTORM running natively in Win and Claude via WSL2 Ubuntu.
to clarify, are you running command prompt > wsl > cursor, and it works for you?
and then inside cursor terminal running wsl > claude?
Yes, but the premise is that you probably still need to check whether something like ‘Claude Code’ already appears in Cursor’s extensions, because it’s really unclear at which step the issue was actually resolved.
None of the solutions here worked for me, sorry. I totally can not understand why Anthropic made it so hard to connect claude code to cursor (or any vscode based IDE), for windows users. I hope that they will soon launch a normal solution or simply claude code for Windows