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Last active April 25, 2025 08:55
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How to use python with the Cursor IDE
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How-to-Python-in-Cursor.md

How to use python with the Cursor AI IDE

We are going to edit cursors settings to point to the microsoft extensions marketplace.

  1. Remove all extensions and exit Cursor.
  2. Locate your Cursor project.json file depending on your platform and open it.
    • On MacOS: /Applications/Cursor.app/Contents/Resources/app/product.json
    • On Windows: C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor\resources\app\product.json
    • On Linux: /usr/lib/code/product.json
  3. Locate the object value for key extensionsGallery in the json document.

Contents of extensionsGallery key in product.json for Cursor

{
    "galleryId": "cursor",
    "serviceUrl": "https://marketplace.cursorapi.com/_apis/public/gallery",
    "itemUrl": "https://marketplace.cursorapi.com/items",
    "resourceUrlTemplate": "https://marketplace.cursorapi.com/{publisher}/{name}/{version}/{path}",
    "controlUrl": "",
    "recommendationsUrl": "",
    "nlsBaseUrl": "",
    "publisherUrl": ""
}
  1. Edit it to look like this:
{
    "galleryId": "cursor",
    "serviceUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery",
    "itemUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items",
    "resourceUrlTemplate": "https://{publisher}.vscode-unpkg.net/{publisher}/{name}/{version}/{path}",
    "controlUrl": "",
    "recommendationsUrl": "",
    "nlsBaseUrl": "",
    "publisherUrl": ""
}
  1. Reopen Cursor.app and install the following extensions:
    • ms-python.python
    • ms-python.vscode-pylance
    • ms-python.debugpy
  2. Make sure in your settings that python.languageServer is set to "Pylance"

Enjoy!

PS: you may need to goto your settings.json to remove any theme settings, because having a broken theme looks exactly like this same problem. In my case cursor had copied over my settings from vscode and they pointed to a theme that wasn't yet installed in cursor, removing and then setting the theme manually worked when I though for sure I had broken it again.

@realdimas
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@Nivg locally, we fix this issue by patching product.json to shift away from the Cursor extension gallery and instead point to the Microsoft extension gallery.
We also bump the extension versions to the latest.
This allows us to install current and unmodified ms-python.python (and other) extensions via locally downloaded .VSIX files that don't depend on anysphere.pyright.

None of these local fixes have any effect on remote environments.

In remote environments, Cursor (VS Code) has its own product.json file and a modified version of the ms-python.python extension which declares a dependency on Cursor's Pyright (ID: anysphere.pyright) extension.

I didn't bother automating the rewrite of the remote product.json file, nor investigating how the patched ms-python.python extension gets there.

Instead, I use this workaround once per remote environment:

  1. Download Python extensions from Microsoft extension gallery as .VSIX files (matching the remote operating system and architecture).
  2. Drag-and-drop the .VSIX files into the Extensions tab's remote section.
  3. Reload window.
  4. Uninstall the Cursor Pyright extension.

I like to keep "Auto Update" checkbox unchecked to upgrade manually via .VSIX files instead.

Below are the direct download links to the current versions of Python extensions for linux-x64 and linux-arm64 architectures:

@Nivg
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Nivg commented Apr 9, 2025

@Nivg locally, we fix this issue by patching product.json to shift away from the Cursor extension gallery and instead point to the Microsoft extension gallery. We also bump the extension versions to the latest. This allows us to install current and unmodified ms-python.python (and other) extensions via locally downloaded .VSIX files that don't depend on anysphere.pyright.

None of these local fixes have any effect on remote environments.

In remote environments, Cursor (VS Code) has its own product.json file and a modified version of the ms-python.python extension which declares a dependency on Cursor's Pyright (ID: anysphere.pyright) extension.

I didn't bother automating the rewrite of the remote product.json file, nor investigating how the patched ms-python.python extension gets there.

Instead, I use this workaround once per remote environment:

  1. Download Python extensions from Microsoft extension gallery as .VSIX files (matching the remote operating system and architecture).
  2. Drag-and-drop the .VSIX files into the Extensions tab's remote section.
  3. Reload window.
  4. Uninstall the Cursor Pyright extension.

I like to keep "Auto Update" checkbox unchecked to upgrade manually via .VSIX files instead.

Below are the direct download links to the current versions of Python extensions for linux-x64 and linux-arm64 architectures:

Wow, many thanks for the very detailed explanation!

I wonder if with the new Microsoft enforcement rollout for using their extensions only in the official vscode, those workarounds won’t work anymore as well…

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