Windsurf Suggestions Suddenly Stopped Accepting With Tab in Visual Studio? Here’s the Fix

If you use the Windsurf plugin in Visual Studio, you may run into a frustrating issue:

• Windsurf still shows suggestions
• But pressing Tab no longer accepts them
• Instead, Tab jumps to another Visual Studio panel or window

At first, it can feel like the plugin is broken.

In reality, the cause is usually much simpler.

The Cause

Visual Studio has a mode called “Tab Moves Focus.”

When this mode is enabled, pressing Tab no longer interacts with code suggestions the usual way. Instead, Tab starts moving focus between different UI panels, tool windows, and controls.

That means Windsurf suggestions may appear normally, but pressing Tab will not accept them.

The Fast Fix

Press:

Ctrl + M

This toggles “Tab Moves Focus” on and off.

After disabling it, Tab should once again accept Windsurf suggestions normally.

You can also find the command manually:

1. Open the Visual Studio command search
2. Search for:

Toggle Tab Moves Focus

1. Run the command if the mode is enabled

If That Does Not Fix It

There are a few other things worth checking

• IntelliCode
• Inspect Keyboard Shortcuts
• Extension Conflicts

Final Thoughts

This issue can be confusing because Windsurf still appears to work normally: suggestions show up, but Tab suddenly behaves differently.

In most cases, the problem is simply that “Tab Moves Focus” was enabled accidentally.

A quick press of Ctrl + M is often all it takes to get back to normal.