CLion 2021.3 Help

Intention actions

As you work in the editor, CLion analyzes your code, searches for ways to optimize it, and detects potential and actual problems.

As soon as the IDE finds a way to alter your code, it displays a yellow bulb icon yellow bulb icon in the editor next to the current line. By clicking this icon, you can view intention actions available in the current context. Intention actions cover a wide range of situations from warnings to optimization suggestions.

A red bulb with an exclamation mark the Quick-fix icon indicates that CLion has detected a problem, and prompts you to select an associated fix — a quick-fix. Quick-fixes and intention actions together are called context actions.

Apply intention actions

  1. Click the bulb icon or press Alt+Enter to open the list of suggestions and select an action from the list.

  2. Press Ctrl+Q or select View | Quick Documentation from the main menu to open an intention preview.

    If an intention is complex, and the preview cannot be generated, you will see the intention description. Hover the mouse pointer over available intentions on the suggestion list to preview them.

    Once activated, the preview will appear every time you open the list of available intention actions. To close the preview, press Ctrl+Q again while the list of intentions is open.

    Intention action preview
  3. Press Enter or click an intention on the list to apply it.

View all intention actions

You can view the full list of available intention actions, and disable actions that you don't need at the moment. To open the list of intention actions:

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Editor | Intentions.

  2. For each intention action, you can see a description and an example. To disable an intention, clear the checkbox next to it.

    Intentions settings
  3. Apply the changes and close the dialog.

Disable intention actions on the fly

  1. Click the light bulb icon (or press Alt+Enter) to open the list of suggestions.

  2. Select the action you want to disable, click the right arrow next to it, and then click Disable <intention action name>.

    Disable an intention action
Last modified: 17 January 2022