How to Use Mac's Option Key as Alt Key in Cursor Terminal

I love using ⌥ + b and ⌥ + f to quickly navigate through words in the terminal. This simple keyboard shortcut significantly speeds up my workflow. While I’ve already configured iTerm2 to remap the Option (⌥) key to work as the Alt key, I wanted the same functionality in Cursor’s (or VS Code Equivalent) integrated terminal. Here’s how you can set this up too:

1. Open Cursor on your Mac
2. Press Cmd+Shift+P to open the Command Palette
3. Type “Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)” and select it

4. Add this single line to your settings.json file:

    {
        "terminal.integrated.macOptionIsMeta": true
    }
   

5. Save the file

That’s it! Your Option key will now function as the Alt/Meta key in Cursor’s integrated terminal.

What This Does

This setting instructs Cursor to treat the Option key as the Meta key (which is equivalent to Alt in many terminal applications). This means keyboard combinations like ⌥ + b or ⌥ + f will now work as expected for moving backward or forward by words in the terminal.

Bonus Tip

You can achieve the same behavior in the code editor by adding the following line to keybindings.json by going to “Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)” from Command Palette.

[
    {
        "key": "alt+f",
        "command": "cursorWordRight",
        "when": "textInputFocus"
    },
    {
        "key": "alt+b",
        "command": "cursorWordLeft",
        "when": "textInputFocus"
    },
]