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CyrFlip setup guide

The CyrFlip desktop app works standalone — it puts the EN/RU/UK marker on the system cursor and next to the text caret everywhere, and transliterates mistyped text with one hotkey. If you use VS Code, the optional VS Code extension adds the same marker precisely at the Monaco editor caret. Here's how to set them up.

How the two pieces fit together

The app is the brain - it knows the active layout. The extension is just a display surface for VS Code, because VS Code draws its own caret that the app can't track precisely from the outside.

  CyrFlip.exe (tray app)            %LOCALAPPDATA%\CyrFlip\        VS Code extension
  detects EN / RU / UK   ──writes──▶      layout.txt      ──watches──▶  draws the marker
                                                                        at the editor caret

The app must be running for the extension to show anything - the extension only reads what the app publishes. Without VS Code you still get the tray icon, the mouse-cursor marker, and the transliteration hotkey everywhere.

Step 1 - Install and run the CyrFlip app

Pick any option:

Microsoft Store - search for CyrFlip in the Microsoft Store app on Windows 10/11 and click Get.
winget:
```
winget install SerZhyAle.CyrFlip
```
Portable ZIP - download from the Releases page, extract anywhere, and run CyrFlip.exe. Nothing to install; it runs on stock Windows 10/11.

On launch, CyrFlip sits in the system tray (no window). The tray icon shows the active layout (EN/RU/UK). Right-click it for the menu - the flip hotkey, a Start with Windows toggle, and Exit.

Turn on Start with Windows so the app - and therefore the layout marker everywhere, including in VS Code - is always available after a reboot.

Step 2 - Install the VS Code extension (optional)

The VS Code extension is not required for the app to work. Skip this step entirely if you don't use VS Code. Install it only if you want the layout marker to appear exactly at the caret inside VS Code. Choose one:

From the Marketplace - open Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X), search CyrFlip (publisher SerZhyAle), and click Install.
From a .vsix file - get cyrflip-vscode-<version>.vsix from the vscode-extension folder, then in VS Code: Extensions ▸ ⋯ ▸ Install from VSIX.., or from a terminal:
```
code --install-extension cyrflip-vscode-<version>.vsix
```

After installing, run Developer: Reload Window (Ctrl+Shift+P). The extension activates on startup - no configuration needed.

Step 3 - Use them together

Make sure the CyrFlip app is running (its tray icon shows EN/RU/UK).
Click into a code editor in VS Code and start typing. Switch your keyboard layout - the coloured EN/RU/UK marker follows your caret, and the status bar shows ⌨ EN/RU/UK.
Everywhere else (other apps, dialogs, the desktop), the marker rides the mouse I-beam cursor and the tray icon, driven by the same app.
Typed something in the wrong layout? Select it and press Ctrl+Shift+F12 - CyrFlip transliterates it in place (QWERTY ↔ ЙЦУКЕН, EN ↔ RU). Each character is flipped by script, so mixed EN + RU text is handled correctly too. Works in any app, VS Code included.
Want the keyboard to follow the fix? Enable Change the language after the flip in the tray menu - after a flip CyrFlip also switches the active input language (EN → RU, otherwise → EN), so you can keep typing in the corrected layout.

Where the layout shows up

Surface	Shown by	Where
Mouse text cursor (I-beam)	App	Everywhere you can type
Marker next to the text caret	App	Classic Win32 / UI-Automation text fields
Marker at the editor caret	Extension	VS Code code editors (precise)
Status-bar indicator	Extension	VS Code, everywhere in the window
Tray icon	App	Always, in the notification area

Inside VS Code, webviews and widgets - the integrated terminal, search boxes, chat panels, the Command Palette - can't host editor decorations, so the caret marker can't appear there. The status-bar indicator and the app's mouse-cursor marker still show the layout.

Troubleshooting

No marker in VS Code. Confirm the app is running, then check that the layout file exists and its contents change when you switch layout. The file path depends on how you installed the app: portable/winget → %LOCALAPPDATA%\CyrFlip\layout.txt; Microsoft Store → %ProgramData%\CyrFlip\layout.txt. The status-bar indicator is the quickest way to tell the extension is reading the file. Try Developer: Reload Window.
Marker sits at the edge of an input (not in VS Code). In Monaco-based editors the app's external overlay can't read the caret precisely - that's exactly what the extension fixes, so install it.
The I-beam mouse cursor stays changed after a hard kill. CyrFlip restores the system cursor on exit; if the process is force-killed (End task), run CyrFlip again or sign out and back in to restore it.
Hotkey does nothing. Make sure text is selected first, and that no other tool grabs Ctrl+Shift+F12. You can change the hotkey in config.json.