Unable to get C++ intellisense working on local machine or remote, both work on VS Code

Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Intellisense for C/C++ and CUDA does not work at all in Cursor.

Steps to Reproduce

Download Anysphere C/C++ extension

Expected Behavior

Code completion and Intellisense for C/C++ code.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Screenshot 2025-11-22 at 1.59.57 PM.png
Screenshot 2025-11-22 at 1.59.57 PM.png2420×658 99.4 KB

Operating System

MacOS
Linux

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.1.20
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: a8d8905b06c8da1739af6f789efd59c28ac2a680
Date: 2025-11-22T14:51:59.472Z
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

Additional Information

Included a screenshot of what I see in VS Code, hovering over the same function in the same file of Cursor does nothing. I’ve tried several solutions and followed the set up instructions carefully, but it just ends up with me down a rabbit hole. This is particularly upsetting when in VS Code it works with just a simple install.

I’m using the latest version of the C++ tools from Anysphere (2.0.2)

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

4

Hi @obo, the Anysphere C/C++ extension relies on Clangd for the language server, which needs to be configured via a compile_commands.json (the build tool, such as CMake, can generate this file). Please see Intellisense disabled in new C++ extension and the Clangd Getting Started Guide for more on configuring Clangd.