Managing Workspaces in Rider for Windsurf Plugin

Question

Why does the Windsurf plugin report "no workspace set" when multiple Rider instances are open, and how to fix it?

Answer

The Windsurf plugin's "no workspace set" issue occurs because it may struggle to correctly identify the active workspace when multiple instances of the Rider IDE are running or when working with multi-project solutions. This leads to difficulties in accessing the full context of the codebase and can cause the plugin to revert to inefficient command-line tools.

Solution: Explicit Workspace Management

Add each of your solution folders as separate workspaces within Windsurf's settings.

1. Go to File > Settings (or IntelliJ IDEA > Preferences on macOS).
2. Navigate to Tools > Windsurf Settings.
3. Under the "Custom Workspaces" section, click Add Workspace.
4. Select each project folder and mark them as "Tracked."

When opening a solution in Rider, prompt the Cascade/Windsurf agent with the command to switch to the appropriate workspace, for example:

• "Switch to the [WORKSPACE_NAME] workspace."
• This action confines the plugin's operations to the relevant workspace only.