Low contrast text in UI panels unreadable in dark themes

[tsongas (Chris Tsongas)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Several Cursor UI elements have extremely low contrast text that’s nearly impossible to read in dark themes, including high contrast themes. This affects:

• View Options panel (gear icon, top-right) — keyboard shortcuts like ⌥⌘S, ⌥⌘B, ⌘J are barely visible
• View Options panel — inactive layout mode labels (Agent, Editor, Zen, Browser) are nearly unreadable when not selected
• Chat sidebar — placeholder text (“Plan, @ for context, / for commands”) is very hard to read
• Model picker dropdown — “Search models” placeholder and toggle labels (Auto, MAX Mode, Use Multiple Models) have poor contrast

I tried overriding colors via workbench.colorCustomizations in settings.json:

“workbench.colorCustomizations”: {
“foreground”: “#ff0000”,
“descriptionForeground”: “#ff0000”,
“keybindingLabel.foreground”: “#ff0000”,
“widget.foreground”: “#ff0000”,
“quickInput.foreground”: “#ff0000”
}

None of these affected the problematic UI elements. They seem to be rendered outside the standard VS Code theming system, so users have no way to fix this themselves.

This is an accessibility issue. I literally cannot read these UI elements without leaning in and squinting. It makes it harder to discover keyboard shortcuts and slows down my workflow. The text should meet WCAG AA contrast standards (4.5:1 minimum).

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use any dark theme (I tested Default Dark Modern, GitHub Dark Default, and even Cursor Dark High Contrast)
2. Open the View Options panel (gear icon, top-right corner)
3. Open the model picker in the Chat sidebar
4. Try to read the gray text

Expected Behavior

Cursor’s UI elements should be readable.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 2.4.21 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: dc8361355d709f306d5159635a677a571b277bc0
Date: 2026-01-22T16:57:59.675Z (2 days ago)
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[tsongas (Chris Tsongas)]

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the detailed report with screenshots and info about trying workbench.colorCustomizations.

You’re right, these Cursor-specific UI elements don’t follow standard VS Code theming settings. This is a known issue with custom panels like View Options and the model picker.

I’ll pass this to the team. Accessibility and contrast issues matter, especially when even high-contrast themes don’t help. Your report will help us prioritize it.

Unfortunately, there’s no workaround right now, but if I find anything, I’ll update this thread.

[Gregv]

I co-sign this, the UI is borderline illegible if you’re in a bright environment