Unable to change the "add to chat" shortcut

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I’m trying to change the shortcut for “Add to Chat” during selections by adding the following to my keybindings.json:

    {
        "key": "alt+cmd+;",
        "command": "composer.sendToAgent",
        "when": "editorHasPromptBar && editorPromptBarFocused"
    },
    {
        "key": "cmd+l",
        "command": "-composer.sendToAgent",
        "when": "editorHasPromptBar && editorPromptBarFocused"
    },
    {
        "key": "cmd+l",
        "command": "-aichat.newchataction"
    }

But, even after reloading the editor, this is not taking effect. I don’t see the ⌘ + L shortcut anymore on the bar that appears and in fact, no shortcut appears there but pressing ⌘ + ⌥ + ; is also not doing anything. So, for some reason, even after explicitly setting a different keymap, Cursor doesn’t seem to heed this request.

A general feedback for Cursor folks is to strongly consider an alternate keymap for those of us used to VSCode keymap: it’s so friggin’ annoying when Cursor hijacks commonly used ones like ⌘ + L and ⌘ + ⇧ + K.

Steps to Reproduce

Add the following to keybindings.json:

    {
        "key": "alt+cmd+;",
        "command": "composer.sendToAgent",
        "when": "editorHasPromptBar && editorPromptBarFocused"
    },
    {
        "key": "cmd+l",
        "command": "-composer.sendToAgent",
        "when": "editorHasPromptBar && editorPromptBarFocused"
    },
    {
        "key": "cmd+l",
        "command": "-aichat.newchataction"
    }

And try using the new shortcut to add some selected text to chat. Notice that it doesn’t work.

Expected Behavior

Custom shortcut should be respected and even shown in the bar that appears when selecting text.

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
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.0.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

2

Hey there.

Weirdly enough, if I add these and if I type cmd+shift+l, the selected text gets added to chat.

Can you confirm? If so, it seems like a bug to me!

1 Like
3

@Colin can confirm that behavior. Here’s what searching for ⌘ + ⇧ + L shows for me in keyboard mapping editor:

CleanShot_2025-12-16T14.33.59_Cursor-Keyboard Shortcuts — adalat-showcase@2x
CleanShot_2025-12-16T14.33.59_Cursor-Keyboard Shortcuts — adalat-showcase@2x2842×452 65.4 KB

Also, here’s the JSON file I used:

[
    {
        "key": "cmd+l",
        "command": "-composer.sendToAgent",
        "when": "editorHasPromptBar && editorPromptBarFocused"
    },
    {
        "key": "cmd+l",
        "command": "-aichat.newchataction"
    }
]

I am also using YuTengjing.vscode-classic-experience to restore VSCode shortcuts but when creating this post, I disabled the extension, reloaded and checked. Then created the original forum post. The behavior with/without this extension is same for me: in that I can’t seem to override the “add to chat” shortcut for whatever reason. Notice the lack of custom shortcut hint in the floating bar:

CleanShot_2025-12-16T14.38.06_Cursor-keybindings.json — adalat-showcase@2x
CleanShot_2025-12-16T14.38.06_Cursor-keybindings.json — adalat-showcase@2x1224×710 62.1 KB

4

Hey @sangeethadalat

I really… don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve just removed the cmd+l from my keybindings.json file, and now it’s behaving as expected (selected text is sent to the chat). Something is still fishy here, but could you give that a try?

5

Tried removing all of my keybindings.json file (no cmd+l custom modifications like I mentioned in screenshots above) and assigned a custom shortcut in addition to default cmd+l.

// // Place your key bindings in this file to override the defaults
// [
//     {
//         "key": "cmd+i",
//         "command": "composerMode.agent"
//     }
// ]
[
    {
        "key": "alt+cmd+;",
        "command": "composer.sendToAgent",
        "when": "editorHasPromptBar && editorPromptBarFocused"
    }
]

Problem still persists: custom shortcut doesn’t activate it, but default cmd+l does. Something is funky w.r.t how Cursor is managing keybindings for these features vs how VSCode does it. Probably these shortcuts are not implemented consistently with how it’s done for other features.

6

Hey @sangeethadalat

Coming back to this thread a bit late, sorry about that.

If you want ⌘ + ⌥ + ; to send selected text over to chat, you should be able to do this by adding the following to your Keybindings JSON.

    {
        "key": "cmd+alt+;",
        "command": "aichat.newchataction"
    }

That should be all it takes. Can you let me know if that works for you?