The Dev Containers extension UI widget is missing from the Activity Bar after attaching Cursor to a remote host. In this case the remote host is WSL (via “Connect to WSL”).
Steps to Reproduce
Start Cursor so it is running locally (in this case Windows desktop).
Confirm that the Dev Containers widget appears in the Activity Bar.
Open a Remote Window → Connect to WSL
Cursor opens in WSL but the Dev Containers widget is missing from the Activity Bar.
Expected Behavior
The Dev Containers extension UI widget should be visible in the Activity Bar when opened in WSL.
There are no messages indicating anything untoward in the Dev Containers extension log in the WSL host. Typing “dev containers” into the command palette shows “Dev Containers: xxx” commands so the extension is running. Using the “Dev Containers: Attach to Running Container” still works.
Hey, thanks for the detailed report. This is a known bug. After connecting to a remote workspace via SSH or WSL, extension icons in the Activity Bar sometimes stop rendering even though the extension itself works fine. That’s why you still have the Dev Containers commands available, including “Dev Containers: …” and “Attach to Running Container”. We don’t have an ETA for a fix yet.
A couple of workarounds to try:
Run Developer: Reload Window via Cmd+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P while you’re already in the WSL window. Often the icons come back after the second reload.
Check the workbench.activityBar.orientation setting. If it’s set to vertical, switch it back to horizontal, or remove the setting. This is a separate case with the same symptom.
One quick question so we can pin this down. In the WSL window, does the icon disappear only for Dev Containers, or for all extensions in the Activity Bar? That’ll help confirm which specific bug you’re hitting. Let me know how it goes.
I’ve just noticed that this issue is in fact impacting our custom extensions in the same way. Despite installing successfully when attached to a remote dev host (both for WSL itself and a docker container) their UI widgets fail to appear in the Activity Bar. I retract my previous statement - it isn’t limited to Dev Containers.
Hey, thanks for the update in the post above. The fact that the bug affects all custom extensions on remote, not just Dev Containers, confirms it’s the same general CORS bug with extension resources icons and fonts over the vscode-managed-remote-resource scheme in SSH and WSL sessions.
Good news: the fix is already merged and should ship in Cursor 3.12. Once you update to that version, try again. The Activity Bar icons on remote should render normally.
Before you update, one workaround is Developer: Reload Window and sometimes the icons come back after the second reload. Let me know if the issue is still there on 3.12.