Fix openFileInIDE to respect user's preferred editor

[sejas]

Related issues

• Fixes STU-1387

Proposed Changes

The openFileInIDE IPC handler was hardcoded to only check for VS Code and PhpStorm, ignoring the user's preferred editor setting configured in Settings > Preferences.

This PR updates the handler to:

• Read the user's preferred editor from settings via getUserEditor()
• Improves getUserEditor to fallback to first detected installed editor
• Tries to open the site folder and the file in a single system call, with the exception of PhpStorm on Mac, in that case it opens the single file.
• Do nothing gracefully if no editor is installed

All 8 supported editors (Antigravity, Cursor, VS Code, PhpStorm, Windsurf, WebStorm, Sublime Text, Zed) now work with the "open file in IDE" feature.

Testing Instructions

Apply this diff to test it:

diff --git a/apps/studio/src/components/content-tab-overview.tsx b/apps/studio/src/components/content-tab-overview.tsx
index 6055a8931..3ca26cbde 100644
--- a/apps/studio/src/components/content-tab-overview.tsx
+++ b/apps/studio/src/components/content-tab-overview.tsx
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import {
 	navigation,
 	page,
 	preformatted,
+	settings,
 	styles,
 	symbolFilled,
 	widget,
@@ -162,6 +163,15 @@ function ShortcutsSection( { selectedSite }: Pick< ContentTabOverviewProps, 'sel
 		} );
 	}
 
+	buttonsArray.push( {
+		label: __( 'wp-config.php' ),
+		className: 'text-nowrap',
+		icon: settings,
+		onClick: () => {
+			getIpcApi().openFileInIDE( 'wp-config.php', selectedSite.id );
+		},
+	} );
+
 	const terminalName = getTerminalName( terminal );
 	buttonsArray.push( {
 		label: terminalName,

1. Start the app with npm start
2. Open Settings > Preferences and select a preferred editor (e.g., Cursor, Sublime Text)
3. Open the AI assistant, ask it to create/edit a file
4. Click the file path in the assistant response
5. Verify the file opens in your selected editor, not just VS Code/PhpStorm
6. Change the preferred editor and repeat — it should respect the new selection
7. Remove the preferred editor setting and verify it falls back to the first installed editor

Test on Mac

open-file-editor-mac.mov

Test on Windows

open-file-IDE.mp4

Pre-merge Checklist

• Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors? (Tests pass, no errors)

[wpmobilebot]

📊 Performance Test Results

Comparing 2157bdd vs trunk

site-editor

Metric	trunk	2157bdd	Diff	Change
load	1779.00 ms	1735.00 ms	-44.00 ms	⚪ 0.0%

site-startup

Metric	trunk	2157bdd	Diff	Change
siteCreation	7132.00 ms	6139.00 ms	-993.00 ms	🟢 -13.9%
siteStartup	3923.00 ms	3953.00 ms	+30.00 ms	⚪ 0.0%

---

Results are median values from multiple test runs.

Legend: 🟢 Improvement (faster) | 🔴 Regression (slower) | ⚪ No change (<50ms diff)

[epeicher]

Thanks @sejas, for solving this! I have tested it, and it works perfectly on Mac. I have tested with VSCode, Cursor, Zed, and PhpStorm, and it opens fine on all of them. On my version of PhpStorm it does not open the folder, but I don't think that's an issue.

On Windows also works fine, but I have identified that VSCode and Cursor open the folder, and when closing them, they open again with only the file. I have recorded a video with that:

CleanShot.2026-03-10.at.09.29.24.mp4

I like the behaviour of opening the file in the proper folder, which works on Mac, but on Windows, it is confusing. Maybe we can add a condition and open the folder only for Mac? What do you think?

[katinthehatsite]

On macOS, the changes worked as expected for me and I did not see any further regressions. I think we should address Roberto's comments before moving forward 👀

[nightnei]

LGTM and works as expected 👍
Left only oen comment about adjusting getFirstInstalledEditor