Cursor Notepads

View your deprecated Cursor Notepads directly in the Explorer sidebar. This extension provides read-only access to your workspace notepads stored in Cursor's internal database.

✨ Features

• Explorer Integration: Adds a "Notepads" section to the Explorer sidebar
• Read-Only Access: Safely reads your notepads without modifying any data
• Markdown Preview: Click any notepad to view it as a Markdown document
• Fast & Efficient: Uses VS Code's storage API to directly locate workspace data (O(1) lookup)
• Privacy-First: All data stays local - no network access, no telemetry

🚀 How It Works

1. The extension uses ExtensionContext.storageUri to locate the current workspace's storage directory
2. Reads the workspace's state.vscdb (or state.vscdb.backup) database
3. Extracts notepad data from the notepadData key
4. Displays all notepads in the Explorer sidebar
5. Clicking a notepad opens it as a read-only Markdown document

Storage Locations:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Cursor\User\workspaceStorage\{workspace-id}\
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/User/workspaceStorage/{workspace-id}/
• Linux: ~/.config/Cursor/User/workspaceStorage/{workspace-id}/

📋 Requirements

• Cursor or VS Code 1.75.0 or higher
• A workspace folder must be open
• The extension works completely offline

⚙️ Settings

• cursorNotepads.debugLogs: Enable debug logs in the Output panel (default: false)

To enable debug logs:

{
  "cursorNotepads.debugLogs": true
}

Then view logs in Output → Cursor Notepads

🔒 Privacy & Security

• ✅ Reads local files only
• ✅ Never modifies your database
• ✅ No network requests
• ✅ No telemetry or data collection
• ✅ Open source - inspect the code yourself!

⚠️ Limitations

• Read-only: This version does not support editing or creating notepads
• Workspace-specific: Only shows notepads for the currently open workspace
• Schema dependent: Relies on Cursor's internal storage format which may change

🐛 Troubleshooting

No "Notepads" section visible:

• Ensure a workspace folder is open (not just a single file)
• Check if the extension is activated in the Extensions panel

Empty notepad list:

• Your workspace may not have any notepads stored
• Try opening a different workspace that you know has notepads
• Enable debug logs to see detailed information

Debug mode:

1. Enable cursorNotepads.debugLogs in settings
2. Open Output panel: Ctrl+Shift+U (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+U (Mac)
3. Select "Cursor Notepads" from the dropdown
4. Look for [storageUri] ✓ found workspace id to confirm successful detection

📝 License

MIT License - See LICENSE.md for details

🔗 Links

• Repository: https://github.com/LCH-1/cursor-notepads
• Issues: https://github.com/LCH-1/cursor-notepads/issues
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md

🙏 Acknowledgments

This extension was created to preserve access to Cursor's deprecated notepad feature.