JetBrains Air Help

Set up

JetBrains Air requires a small amount of setup before you can run agentic tasks. You need to connect at least one AI provider, and you may need additional tooling depending on how you want to run tasks.

Required tooling

Make sure the following tools are installed:

  • Git – required for working with repositories and task branches.

  • Docker and Docker Desktop – required only if you want to run tasks in containers.

    Other Docker runtimes (for example, Colima) may work but can require additional configuration. If you use an alternative runtime, make sure Docker commands work from the terminal before you use Docker tasks in JetBrains Air.

Connect AI providers

AI providers are required to run agentic tasks. On the first start of JetBrains Air, you must connect at least one provider before you can continue.

If you want to connect additional providers later, use Settings.

Connect an AI provider

  1. Open Settings and go to Account | AI Providers.

  2. Click Connect next to the provider you want to use.

    If you have a JetBrains AI subscription, connect JetBrains AI. It works as a universal provider and unlocks multiple agents (Claude Agent, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, and Junie) under one subscription, with usage tracked through JetBrains AI credits.

    If you already use a specific provider account, connect it directly.

  3. Follow the login flow. For most providers, you can choose the account type you already use, for example, a subscription account or an API billing account.

Configure MCP servers

MCP servers extend agents with additional tools. They are commonly used in agentic workflows to fetch data and perform actions in external systems. For example, you can paste a YouTrack issue link into a task and let the agent fetch the issue details through a YouTrack MCP server.

MCP servers are configured with an msp.json file.

Add an MCP server

  1. Open Settings and go to AI | MCP Servers.

  2. Make sure Enable MCP support is turned on.

  3. Click Add Global MCP Server to add a server available in all your projects. Use the drop-down menu to choose Add Local MCP Server or Add Workspace MCP Server.

    • Global – available in all projects on your machine. Use it for personal integrations you use everywhere.

    • Local – available only in the current project and stored along with other JetBrains Air settings in project/.air/mcp.json. Use it for project-specific configuration.

    • Workspace – uses the standard .mcp.json file in the project root. Use it when your repository already contains MCP configuration, and you want JetBrains Air to reuse it.

      If you want JetBrains Air to use .mcp.json from the repository, make sure Launch workspace MCP servers is enabled.

  4. Paste the JSON configuration and save it.

Keymap and general settings

You can customize editor behavior and UI preferences in Settings. For example, you can choose a keymap (multiple keymaps are supported, including IntelliJ IDEA and VS Code keymaps) and adjust general options.

Learn more in Settings.

05 March 2026
Agentization cookbookDefine tasks