Cursor conflicts with emacs keybindings

General
1

So I decided to try cursor. I’ve been using IntelliJ with emacs keybindings for a long time.
I chose to use the emacs keybindings during installation. Unfortunately, the cursor keybindings mask out standard emacs keybindings if you choose this.

For example, ctrl-k in emacs always kills a line in the editor. But I guess if we install cursor, it thinks you really want ctrl+k to bring up the composer window.

There are many, many other conflicts like this. Some are just vscode keymap issues and some are cursor keymap issues.

I’m going through all the conflicts changing the key mappings that cursor comandeered , but this is time consuming. Is there a better way? Is it possible for the cursor install to be more considerate to chosen keymaps at install time?

I’ll post my keybindings.json once I’ve finished fixing enough of the problems to make cursor usable.

1 Like
2

tSame issue here. Did you ever get around to finishing your keybinding.json? :smiling_face_with_tear:

i’d also take a partial state :sweat_smile:

3

Cursor Editor Keybindings Guide

Coming from IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate with Emacs keybindings, this guide aims to configure Cursor with similar functionality. The goal is to preserve familiar keybindings while addressing Cursor’s default overrides.

Goals

  • Use Cursor with Emacs keybindings
  • Maintain IntelliJ-like functionality (e.g., ctrl+q for quick documentation/hover)
  • Fix problematic keymappings that Cursor introduces on top of VSCode and the Awesome Emacs keymap (e.g., ctrl+k is reserved for deleting text from the cursor to the end of the line (kill-line) )

Configuration Location

To use these keybindings, just copy the download this keybindings file from github and copy it to the cursor location. On linux, this is in ~/.config/Cursor/User/keybindings.json

Keybinding Categories

Window Management

Keybinding Action
ctrl+x 8 Split window horizontal (matches IntelliJ)
ctrl+x 9 Split window vertical (matches IntelliJ)
ctrl+x ctrl+o Go to file (similar to IntelliJ view->recent files)

Search/Find

Keybinding Action
ctrl+shift+alt+n Add selection to next find match (multi-cursor)
ctrl+shift+alt+p Add selection to previous find match (multi-cursor)
ctrl+alt+/ Find references to symbol at cursor
ctrl+alt+n Go to next search result in editor
ctrl+alt+p Go to previous search result in editor

Selection

Keybinding Action
ctrl+alt+w Expand selection
ctrl+alt+shift+w Shrink selection
ctrl+alt+e Expand line selection Out of the box, VScode will map this to ctrl-p It seems the Awesome Emacs Keymap hides this when it maps it to move cursor to previous line. This action is closer to what IntelliJ does with ctrl+alt+w in some cases. Apparently, there is no shrink line selection
shift+alt+n Move line down (vscode is very close to Intellij but Intellij is smarter about moving to code blocks that make sense)
shift+alt+p Move line up
alt+h Select previous tab
alt+l Select next tab

Code/Refactoring

Keybinding Action
ctrl+. Navigate to definition
ctrl+, Navigate back
ctrl+/ Navigate forward
ctrl+c ctrl+c Comment line
ctrl+q Show hover (similar to IntelliJ quick documentation)
shift+F6 Rename symbol
ctrl+alt+l Format document (matches IntelliJ reformat)
ctrl+alt+i Format line
ctrl+alt+d Copy line down
ctrl+alt+v Refactor menu
alt+F12 Toggle terminal

Cursor-Specific Actions

All Cursor actions are mapped under the alt+k chord to avoid conflicts:

Keybinding Action
alt+k k Generate code (opens in-editor window)
alt+k c or ctrl+i Open cursor composer in side window
alt+k i or ctrl+shift+i Open cursor composer in big window
alt+k alt+l Show chat history window
alt+k l Open/new chat window
alt+k y Copy selection to chat window

Additional VSCode/IntelliJ Shortcuts

Keybinding Action
alt+g n Go to next problem
alt+g p Go to previous problem

Ubuntu Notes

To disable Ubuntu’s emoji picker on ctrl+., run:

gsettings set org.freedesktop.ibus.panel.emoji hotkey "[]"

Known Issues

  1. Emacs controls don’t work in cursor composer:

    • Basic navigation (ctrl+n, ctrl+p, ctrl+a) fails
    • Forces use of arrow keys
    • ctrl+a uses Windows convention (select all)

  2. Problematic bindings:

    • vscode/cursor has No action for navigate to next/prev method (alt+n,alt+p)
    • insert selection into chat doesn’t recognize Emacs kill ring
    • Tab key will always be different between Cursor and IntelliJ.

  3. Removed/hidden keybindings:

    • alt+l (Transform to lowercase) from Awesome Emacs keymap
2 Likes
4

Here is the keybindings file I am using today. They are hosted on github

keybindings.json

I’ll try to keep this updated as I run into more issues.

5

I still cant’ get ctrl-k to work when in the chat window. It just moves focus from the chat to the “+ add context” button above. Seems to behave like VIM bindings (move up).

2024-10-30 19:47:16.601 [info] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving ctrl+[KeyK]
2024-10-30 19:47:16.601 [info] [KeybindingService]: \ From 2 keybinding entries, no when clauses matched the context.

I even tried adding the following keybinding but it still does the same thing.

{
    "key": "ctrl-k",
    "command": "emacs-mcx.killLine", // also tried deleteAllRight
    "when": "true"
  }

//yields
2024-10-30 19:51:30.415 [info] [KeybindingService]: | Resolving ctrl+[KeyK]
2024-10-30 19:51:30.416 [info] [KeybindingService]: \ From 3 keybinding entries, matched emacs-mcx.killLine, when: true, source: user.

But it just moves the cursor up. Cut/Yank also do not work as they should. I can’t seem to figure out what context to put for the “when” for chat but based on Ctrl-k not working with context true I’m not hopeful.

Also the undo is wildly annoying. Composer seems to get into the undo chain and instead of reverting changes to file it will reopen composer and start undoing chats.

6

I’m assuming that the Cursor windows like composer and chat just don’t honor the keybindings.json file at all. The changes I did were basically only tested in the normal code editing windows. It would be interesting to hear from someone at Cursor regarding the product roadmap here.