IntelliJ IDEA 2021.2 Help

Manage plugins

Plugins extend the core functionality of IntelliJ IDEA. For example, install plugins to get the following features:

  • Integration with version control systems, issue trackers, build management servers, and other tools.

  • Coding assistance support for various languages and frameworks.

  • Shortcut hints, live previews, File Watchers, and so on.

  • Coding exercises that can help you to learn a new programming language.

Open plugin settings

  • Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Plugins.

The Plugins settings dialog

Use the Marketplace tab to browse and install plugins from the JetBrains Plugin Repository or from a custom plugin repository.

Use the Installed tab to browse bundled and installed plugins, enable, disable, update, or remove them. Disabling unnecessary plugins can increase performance.

Most plugins can be used with any JetBrains product. Some are limited only to commercial products, others require a separate license.

If a plugin depends on some other plugin, IntelliJ IDEA will notify you about the dependencies. If your project depends on certain plugins, add them to the list of required plugins.

If existing plugins do not provide some functionality that you need, you can create your own plugin for IntelliJ IDEA. For more information, see Develop your own plugins.

By default, IntelliJ IDEA includes several bundled plugins. You can disable bundled plugins, but they cannot be removed. You can install additional plugins from the plugin repository or from a local archive file (ZIP or JAR).

Install plugin from repository

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Plugins.

  2. Find the plugin in the Marketplace and click Install.

To install a specific version, go to the plugin page in the JetBrains Plugin Repository, download and install it as described in Install plugin from disk. For example, you can do it if the most recent version of the plugin is broken.

Install plugin from disk

  1. Download the plugin archive (ZIP or JAR).

  2. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Plugins.

  3. On the Plugins page, click The Settings button and then click Install Plugin from Disk….

  4. Select the plugin archive file and click OK.

  5. Click OK to apply the changes and restart the IDE if prompted.

Remove plugin

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Plugins.

  2. Open the Installed tab and find the plugin that you want to remove.

  3. Click The Plugin Settings button on the plugin's description pane and select Uninstall.

    The Uninstall item for plugins

Disable plugin

You can disable a plugin without removing it if you do not need the corresponding functionality.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Plugins.

  2. Open the Installed tab, find and select the plugin that you want to disable.

  3. Click The Plugin Settings button on the plugin's description pane and select Disable.

    Alternatively, you can use the checkboxes in the list of plugins or the Disable All buttons for plugin categories.

You can disable or enable all manually installed plugins at once (non-bundled) in the menu under The Settings button.

Disable all downloaded plugins

Required plugins

A project may require plugins that provide support for certain technologies or frameworks. You can add such plugins to the list of required plugins for the current project, so that IntelliJ IDEA will verify that the plugins are installed and enabled. It will notify you if you forget about some plugin, or someone on your team is not aware about the dependency as they work on the project.

Add a required plugin for your current project

  1. Make sure the required plugin is installed.

  2. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Build, Execution, Deployment | Required Plugins.

  3. On the Required Plugins page, click The Add icon and select the plugin. Optionally, specify the minimum and maximum version of the plugin.

When you open the project in IntelliJ IDEA, it will notify you if the plugin is disabled, not installed, or requires an update.

Click the link in the notification message to quickly enable, install, or update the required plugin.

Develop your own plugins

You can use any edition of IntelliJ IDEA to develop plugins. It provides an open API, a dedicated SDK, module, and run/debug configurations to help you.

The recommended workflow is to use Gradle. The old workflow using the internal IntelliJ IDEA build system is also supported. For more information, see the IntelliJ Platform SDK Developer Guide.

Custom plugin repositories

By default, IntelliJ IDEA is configured to use plugins from the JetBrains Plugin Repository. This is a public repository where everyone can host their plugins. However, if you develop plugins for internal use only, you can set up a custom plugin repository for them.

For information about setting up a custom plugin repository, see the IntelliJ Platform SDK documentation.

Once you set up your plugin repository, add it to IntelliJ IDEA:

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Plugins.

  2. On the Plugins page, click The Settings button and select Manage Plugin Repositories….

  3. In the Custom Plugin Repositories dialog, click The Add icon and specify your repository URL. It must point to the location of the updatePlugins.xml file. The file can be on the same server as your custom plugins, or on a dedicated one.

    How to add a custom plugin repository

  4. Click OK in the Custom Plugin Repositories dialog to save the list of plugin repositories.

  5. Click OK in the Settings/Preferences dialog to apply the changes.

When you search for plugins, IntelliJ IDEA will show you results both from the default JetBrains Plugin Repository and any custom repositories that you specify. To browse only a certain custom plugin repository, type repository: followed by the URL of the repository in the search field on the Marketplace tab of the Plugins page. For example:

repository:http://plugins.example.com:8080/updatePlugins.xml myPlugin

Alternatively, you can add your custom plugin repositories using the idea.plugin.hosts property:

  1. From the main menu, select Help | Edit Custom Properties….

  2. Add the idea.plugin.hosts property to the platform properties file and specify the URL of the updatePlugins.xml file. For example:

    idea.plugin.hosts="http://plugins.example.com:8080/updatePlugins.xml"

  3. Restart IntelliJ IDEA.

You may want to replace the default JetBrains Plugin Repository with your custom plugin repository. This can be helpful if you want only your custom repository plugins to be available from IntelliJ IDEA.

Replace the default plugin repository

  1. From the main menu, select Help | Edit Custom Properties….

  2. Add the idea.plugins.host property to the platform properties file and specify the URL of the application that can properly handle requests from IntelliJ IDEA, that is, act as the default plugin repository application instead of JetBrains Plugin Repository.

    In particular, it should handle the following requests:

  3. Restart IntelliJ IDEA.

If you replace the default plugin repository, the search field on the Marketplace tab of the Plugins dialog will browse only the plugins in the new default repository and any custom repositories that you add.

Productivity tips

Filter and sort search results

  • Type a forward slash / in the search string to see options for filtering and sorting search results. For example, you can add the following options to your search string to list only language-related plugins and sort them by the number of downloads:

    /tag:Languages /sortBy:downloads
Last modified: 02 August 2022
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