Where Does Windsurf Store Settings and Extensions?
Windsurf settings, extensions and AI state folders on desktop, which live under two separate home roots.
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Windsurf follows its VS Code roots. User settings live in a settings.json under the app support folder: ~/Library/Application Support/Windsurf/User on Mac, %APPDATA%\Windsurf\User on Windows, ~/.config/Windsurf/User on Linux.
The part people miss is the split home. Extensions and project rules live under ~/.windsurf, while MCP servers, workflows and conversation state live under ~/.codeium/windsurf. Back up only one and half your setup stays behind. Exact filenames may still shift between releases, since Windsurf publishes no canonical path page.
Where Windsurf stores this, by platform
%APPDATA%\Windsurf\User\settings.json
User settings.json in VS Code style. Extensions under %USERPROFILE%\.windsurf\extensions, AI state (mcp_config.json, workflows, cascade history) under %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf. Layout may vary by version.
~/Library/Application Support/Windsurf/User/settings.json
User settings.json in VS Code style. Extensions under ~/.windsurf/extensions, AI state (mcp_config.json, workflows, cascade history) under ~/.codeium/windsurf. Layout may vary by version.
~/.config/Windsurf/User/settings.json
User settings.json in VS Code style ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME respected). Extensions under ~/.windsurf/extensions, AI state under ~/.codeium/windsurf. Layout may vary by version.
Frequently asked questions
I copied ~/.windsurf to a new machine but my MCP servers are gone. Why?
Because MCP servers live in the other home: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. Windsurf splits state across ~/.windsurf (rules, extensions) and ~/.codeium/windsurf (MCP, workflows, history). Copy both.
Where do Windsurf project rules live?
In the repo itself: <repo>/.windsurf/rules/ (plus workflows/ alongside). Older setups used a single <repo>/.windsurfrules file. They travel with the checkout, so teammates get them automatically.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.