Terminal has keyboard input but keybindings with terminalFocus context don't work

[Izzy_Lee]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

The integrated terminal can receive keyboard input (including control characters), but keybindings that depend on the terminalFocus context do not fire. For example, the “Split Terminal” hotkey doesn’t work even though I can type into the terminal.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open an integrated terminal
2. Run any long-running process that’s not run in the background (like a server process)
3. Click on the terminal - typing works, control characters work
4. Try to use a focus-dependent hotkey like “Split Terminal” (Cmd+Shift+5 or Cmd+)
5. The hotkey does nothing.

The terminal receives keystrokes (can type, send control characters), but Cursor’s keybinding context system doesn’t recognize terminalFocus as true, so context-dependent hotkeys fail silently.

Expected Behavior

Hotkeys with terminalFocus conditions should work when the terminal is receiving keyboard input.

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.2.20
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: b3573281c4775bfc6bba466bf6563d3d498d1070
Date: 2025-12-12T06:29:26.017Z (3 days ago)
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

Additional Information

Workaround

CMD+Shift+P => “Terminal: Split Terminal” still works

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue with the terminalFocus context - we’re tracking it.

A temporary fix is to add explicit keybindings for Split Terminal:

1. Open Keyboard Shortcuts (CMD+Shift+P → Keyboard Shortcuts)
2. Open keybindings.json and add:

{
  "key": "cmd+shift+5",
  "command": "workbench.action.terminal.split",
  "when": "terminalFocus"
}

This should make the hotkey work. The problem is that Cursor might set context variables like terminalHasBeenCreated or terminalProcessSupported incorrectly, which VS Code uses by default.

A similar case was fixed this way: CMD+SHIFT+[ doesn't toggle terminals

Let us know if this helps.