Layout is overwritten by cursor

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

  // Layout and positioning
  "workbench.sideBar.location": "right", // Place sidebar (file explorer) on the right side
  "workbench.panel.defaultLocation": "bottom", // Place bottom panel (terminal, problems, etc.) at bottom
  "workbench.activityBar.location": "default", // Hide the activity bar (left icon bar)
  "workbench.statusBar.visible": false, // Hide the status bar at bottom

I have these preferences saved in my settings.json, but Cursor seems to have overridden my settings.json because I want my sidebar location to be on the right and not on the left.

Steps to Reproduce

Just install Cursor and add these to your settings.json, and you can find it like they’re not working! The sidebar location right is not working.

Expected Behavior

I want my settings to work as they would normally.

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.3.41
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 2ca326e0d1ce10956aea33d54c0e2d8c13c58a30
Date: 2026-01-16T19:14:00.150Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.2.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

3

fixed using cmd + E

4

Hey, I see you already found a solution using CMD+E, nice work.

If the issue comes back after a restart or update, try this workaround:

  1. In settings.json, add "workbench.sideBar.location": "right"
  2. Open the layout menu (in the top-right)
  3. Find the “Agent Sidebar” setting and switch it to “Left”

These two settings work together. If the primary sidebar is on the right, the agent sidebar should be on the left, and vice versa. After changing it, restart Cursor.

More details here: workbench.sideBar.location: right, not respected after 2.3.26 update, even with --disable-extensions flag - #2 by Colin

Let me know if it keeps coming back.

Primary Side Bar forgets its position
Primary Side Bar forgets its position
5

I’m a bit lost – isn’t CMD+E suppose to switch between Agent and Editor views?
I have a problem (reported in UI constantly resets layout in Cursor 2.0 ) in which everything I switch between Agent and Editor views, it resets the UI.

Specifically, the sideBar pops up (I want it turned non-visible, and I’ve been using CMD+B as a workaroud), and I want the with of my terminal window (or the Editor window, because I’m only using those two) to stay constant.

Apologies for cross-posting.