Feature Request: Enable Plan-style Mermaid rendering for regular .md files

Ideas Feature Requests
1

Feature request for product/service

Cursor IDE

Describe the request

Problem

I discovered that .plan.md files in .cursor/plans/ have an amazing Mermaid diagram rendering feature:

  • Fullscreen mode
  • Zoom in/out
  • Pan/drag to navigate

However, this feature is NOT available for regular .md files in user project directories.

Current Workaround

I have to manually create files in .cursor/plans/ directory to use this feature, which:

  • May cause performance issues (as mentioned in some posts, too many plan files slow down Cursor)
  • Is not the intended use of that directory

Feature Request

Please consider one of the following:

  1. Enable the same Mermaid rendering for all .md files (with a toggle in settings)
  2. Allow users to specify custom directories that use Plan-style rendering
  3. Add a “Preview Mermaid Fullscreen” command that works on any markdown file

Use Case

As a Pro subscriber ($200/month), I frequently create architecture diagrams for my projects. The interactive Mermaid preview would be incredibly useful for reviewing complex flowcharts.

Example

My architecture diagram has 100+ nodes - it’s impossible to view in the standard markdown preview without zoom capability.

Thank you for considering this feature!

1 Like
2

Hey, thanks for the feature request!

I agree that interactive Mermaid rendering from .plan.md files is really handy. For regular Markdown files, the current option is to install the Markdown Preview Mermaid Support extension, which adds Mermaid rendering to the standard Markdown preview.

More info on using Mermaid in Cursor: Mermaid Diagrams | Cursor Docs

Your request to extend the interactive view (fullscreen, zoom, pan) to all Markdown files makes sense, especially for large diagrams. I’ll pass this along to the product team as a feature request.

3

I would also love to see this - the extension you mention is good for simple charts, but once they get large, it’s very hard to see detail (for example, complex sequence diagrams. The Cursor Plan mode previewer is awesome with it’s quick ability to fullscreen, zoom and pan - great usability!

The closest alternative I have found is the Mermaid Chart “official” extension but to pan/zoom/etc you have to click “Edit” above the mermaid, which opens a new file with just the mermaid code, and a preview window. It’s extra clicks, then to close you have click the “don’t save” dialogue. These extra clicks take me out of the workflow. Please bring the Plan mode mermaid renderer to your Markdown previewer!