"Option + arrow" in terminal types DACB

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

In the cursor integrated terminal when using the shortcut “option + arrow(left, right)” instead of jumping from one word to the next it writes the letters “D” and “C”, “option + arrow(up, down)” write “A” and “B”.

Similar happens when “shift + arrow”.

This only happens in the cursor terminal, the shortcut works as expected in the code area, and all other editors like vscode or regular terminal. Confirmed the same behaviour with 3 different colleagues.

Steps to Reproduce

Open cursor, open terminal inside of cursor, type in some words, try to jump from word to word using “option + arrow(left, right)”

Expected Behavior

The shortcut “option + arrow(left, right)” should jump from one word to the next depending on the direction.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.3.30
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 3dc559280adc5f931ade8e25c7b85393842acf30
Date: 2026-05-09T18:28:42.332Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.2.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

This is a known bug caused by a recent default change. Merging this into an existing thread where the issue is being tracked: Option + Arrow keys no longer work in the integrated terminal.

In the meantime, you can work around it by adding this to your settings.json (open with Cmd+Shift+P > “Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)”):

"terminal.integrated.enableKittyKeyboardProtocol": false