My current version of Cursor is 2.1.32. One of the recent updates (within the last three weeks at most) made the icon for “Testing”/the Test Explorer disappear from the selectable and pinnable items on the horizonal “side bar” header.
I’m using Python with pytest and the default test explorer, and didn’t change anything about my extensions, and I do not have test-related extensions installed other than regular Python ones. The Test Explorer is accessible via the View menu and works just fine.
The same issue was verified by colleagues.
Steps to Reproduce
Try to pin the icon for the Test Explorer to the side bar on the left.
Expected Behavior
The icon should show up and be pinnable via the pin symbol on mouse-over. This worked until a Cursor update I installed today.
Hey, thanks for the report. This looks related to the VSCode version update (1.105.1) that Cursor is built on.
The Testing view icon in the sidebar now only appears if at least one testing extension is installed. This matches how it works in VSCode itself.
To restore the Test Explorer icon:
Install a testing extension from the Extensions marketplace, for example:
Playwright Test for VSCode
Jest Runner
Python Test Explorer
Or any other testing extension for your language
After you install a testing extension, the Testing icon should appear again in the activity bar.
Could you try installing a testing extension and let us know if the icon shows up again? Even if you’re only using pytest with the default Python extension, you may now need to install a dedicated testing extension.
I’m not really convinced of that. I’m using VS Code along with Cursor (I’m on 1.106.2), and I never had a version that removed the test explorer icon in my side bar.
I know Cursor had problems with this in the past already, but I was happy to have the icon until a few days ago.
The test explorer works perfectly fine with my current setup, so I don’t want to install some random extension that might mess with assertions or whatever for a GUI fix that feels rather trivial to me.
Below, you see a screenshot of my list of extensions I use in VS Code (and the test explorer item features prominently in the side bar).
At first unrelated to this, I followed your advice in another thread on how to install the extension “Data Wrangler” on cursor (i.e., manually via VSIX). This worked, but I didn’t have the Jupyter extensions installed, so Data Wrangler did nothing, but I suddenly had the icon again.
After the next Cursor update/restart, Cursor asked me whether I wanted to install the Jupyter stuff. After doing so the test icon was gone again.
Does anybody have a good recommendation for a safe extension that does nothing and doesn’t work? Maybe that’d fix the problem.
Ah! This probably explains why I have Claude Code available in my sidebar on one machine but not another, when connected to the same remote host. It must be because I have the WSL extension installed locally on one of them. Wild.
