Dark Reader plugin bleeding into my Cursor browser

[Hyphen]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I have the Dark Reader plugin installed on every browser I use, but I’ve put all localhost hostnames and IPs as exclusions. However, it still seems to bleed into my Cursor IDE’s browser. How do I prevent this? What browser do I need to completely disable Dark Reader for in order for this to stop?

Steps to Reproduce

Install Dark Reader, watch how it affects Cursor’s browser

Expected Behavior

Not affected by Dark Reader or to respect the excludes

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.2.23 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: b3c95a7981bb3057526f1f865e8c307a9911ce00
Date: 2025-12-15T03:10:57.241Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[Colin]

Hey there.

As a non-dark mode kind of guy, this was difficult (on my eyes) to try and reproduce! In the end, I couldn’t.

If you open up DevTools within the Chrome tab in Cursor, do you see DarkReader under Sources? I don’t, even when it’s installed on my regular browser.

Chrome:

Cursor:

[Hyphen]

I don’t see it in the sources.

Here is how my page looks in Cursor:

Here’s how it looks in the browser:

My only experience with this kind of thing is when Dark Reader is interfering. I can’t figure it out.

[Colin]

Thanks for the detailed report with screenshots! I think this is actually not Dark Reader, but Cursor’s built-in browser inheriting your IDE’s color scheme preference.

When you use a dark theme in Cursor, the browser automatically tells websites to use prefers-color-scheme: dark, which causes many sites to switch to their native dark mode.

Could you try this quick test?

1. In Cursor, open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P)
2. Search for “Preferences: Color Theme”
3. Temporarily switch to a light theme (e.g., “Light Modern” or “Light+”)
4. Reload the page in Cursor’s browser

Does the page now appear differently?

(We should probably consider adding a way for users to easily toggle light/dark mode directly from the browser, independent of their IDE theme)

[Hyphen]

You were correct. Thank you.

[Colin]

Thanks for confirming! I’ve raised this with the team.