Feature request for product/service
Cursor IDE
Describe the request
cursor --remote wsl+ always connects using whatever Linux user is configured as that distro’s default user (/etc/wsl.conf [user] default=). There’s no way to choose a different user for a single connection — no wsl+user@distro syntax, no picker in the “Connect to WSL” flow, and no per-connection setting.
Attempted workaround that doesn’t work:
Running the in-WSL remote-cli shim (~/.cursor-server/bin//bin/remote-cli/cursor ) as the target user, hoping it would behave like code . and bootstrap a new window — it fails with:
Command is only available in WSL or inside a Visual Studio Code terminal.
This shim apparently only works from inside an already connected remote window, not to establish a fresh connection as an arbitrary user.
Only workaround that actually works:
- Edit /etc/wsl.conf to set [user] default=
- wsl --terminate to apply it
- Connect with Cursor
- Revert the config and terminate again afterward
This is very disruptive — terminating the distro kills every other process running in it (other terminals, other Cursor/VS Code server sessions, Docker containers, etc.), just to open one window as a different user.
Request: Support specifying the connecting user per Remote-WSL connection, e.g. wsl+@ or a prompt/setting, similar to how VS Code Dev Containers supports remoteUser.