Settings: File Watchers

The page is available when the File Watchers plugin is enabled. For more information about configuring File Watchers, see File watchers.

You can also configure a custom File Watcher to run any other third-party tool.

File watchers track changes into your files and run a configured tool on every change. CLion provides predefined File Watcher templates for a number of popular third-party tools (compilers, compressors, prettifiers, and others). You can also configure a custom File Watcher to run any other third-party tool.

Item	Tooltip/ and shortcut	Description
	Add Alt+Insert	Click this button to open the Choose template popup and select the relevant type of File Watcher. After that CLion opens the  New Watcher dialog for customizing the predefined File Watcher according to the settings of the current project.
	Edit Enter	Click this button to update the settings of the selected File Watcher in the Edit Watcher dialog. The update is applied to the current project File Watcher only, it does not affect the predefined CLion-level template.
	Remove Alt+Delete	Click this button to remove the selected File Watcher. The File Watcher is no longer applied to the files in the current project. Note that this action does not affect the corresponding predefined template which is still available at the CLion level.
	Up Ctrl+Alt+Up Down Ctrl+Alt+Down	Use these buttons to change the order of File Watcher in the list. This determines the order of launching File Watchers, if more than one are enabled.
	Copy	Use this button to create a copy of the selected File Watcher.
	Import	Click this button to import an existing File Watcher and add it to the list of available File Watchers.
	Export	Click this button to export the selected watchers to watchers.xml file, located under the user's home.