Workspace custom colors vanish

Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

When I open a pre-defined workspace in Cursor by double-clicking the .code-workspace file for that workspace, it INITIALLY comes up with my custom colors (for the statusBar and titleBar), but after a moment, the custom colors vanish, resetting to the default.

When I view the .code-workspace file through another editor, I observe that my backup of the .code-workspace file contains a section called “workbench.colorCustomizations” containing values like “titleBar.activeBackground”: “#224488”.

But the active .code-workspace file for the currently-open workspace contains no such colors.

If I try to put the color customizations back in, they appear to work …but only for a moment, then Cursor erases them and the colors revert again.

Why is Cursor removing my custom colors from my workspace files?

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Define a workspace in a file called MyWorkspace.code-workspace, containing settings like these:
{
	"folders": [
		{
			"path": "(some path where you have a repo)"
		}
	],
	"settings": {
		"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
			"activityBar.activeBackground": "#2c58b1",
			"activityBar.background": "#2c58b1",
			"activityBar.foreground": "#e7e7e7",
			"activityBar.inactiveForeground": "#e7e7e799",
			"activityBarBadge.background": "#4d1326",
			"activityBarBadge.foreground": "#e7e7e7",
			"commandCenter.border": "#e7e7e799",
			"sash.hoverBorder": "#2c58b1",
			"statusBar.background": "#224488",
			"statusBar.foreground": "#e7e7e7",
			"statusBarItem.hoverBackground": "#2c58b1",
			"statusBarItem.remoteBackground": "#224488",
			"statusBarItem.remoteForeground": "#e7e7e7",
			"titleBar.activeBackground": "#224488",
			"titleBar.activeForeground": "#e7e7e7",
			"titleBar.inactiveBackground": "#22448899",
			"titleBar.inactiveForeground": "#e7e7e799"
		},
		"peacock.color": "#224488",   //not sure if this is relevant; I have an extension called Peacock
		"editor.formatOnSave": true
	}
}

  1. Open double-click that .code-workspace file to open up the relevant repo in Cursor, as a workspace, and QUICKLY observe that the Cursor titleBar, statusBar, etc. have custom colors.

  2. Count to 5.

  3. The custom colors vanish.

  4. Re-open your .code-workspace file in Sublime Text or some similar editor. You’ll see your colorCustomizations section has vanished.

Expected Behavior

It’s supposed to leave my custom colors intact, not excise them from the file.

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.7.46
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: b9e5948c1ad20443a5cecba6b84a3c9b99d62580
Date: 2025-10-14T01:21:46.830Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

n/a

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

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Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

2

Hey, thanks for the report. This is indeed unusual behavior, Cursor shouldn’t be removing settings from workspace files.

A couple of questions to investigate:

  • Does the behavior persist with the Peacock extension disabled? (you mentioned it in your workspace settings)
  • Do you have other extensions that might affect workspace colors or settings?
  • Does this occur with a minimal workspace file (just folders + workbench.colorCustomizations, no other settings)?

Temporary workaround:
Try moving the color customizations to your User settings.json Cmd+Shift+P → “Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)” instead of the workspace file. This won’t give you per‑workspace colors, but it should prevent Cursor from removing them.

3

Dean,

Thanks for your reply.

After disabling the Peacock extension, the problem doesn’t seem to continue. So, maybe that’s the source.

(Thanks for thinking of that! …although, that’s odd, because Peacock (v 4.2.2) shows no recent updates (last updated 2025-02-27), and I’m not sure why this problem would happen after I recently restarted Cursor.)

I do want to keep the color customizations on a per-workspace basis, because that’s really the only reason I bother defining these colors: When I have multiple repos open in multiple Cursor windows, and I’m switching between them in the middle of the workday, I want to remember which repo I’m coding in. The custom colors help me clarify which window is which.

Hopefully my reinstated colors will stay, this time. (Fingers crossed.)

1 Like