What’s New in IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2

With this release, we introduce a major addition to IntelliJ IDEA – AI Assistant. With the current starting set of AI-powered features, AI Assistant offers integrated AI chat and can do things like automatically write documentation comments for you, suggest names, generate commit messages, and more.

AI Assistant is powered by the JetBrains AI service, which can connect you to OpenAI for now and will include other language model providers in the future. To access the assistant’s AI features, you’ll need to install the AI Assistant plugin and log in to the JetBrains AI service using your JetBrains Account. The availability of the JetBrains AI service may vary initially. For more information on AI Assistant and instructions on how to access it, refer to this blog post.

Search Everywhere (Double Shift) is primarily used for searching through files, classes, methods, actions, and settings. With this update, it now includes text search capabilities similar to Find in Files. Now, text search results are displayed when there are few or no other search results available for a given query. The feature is enabled by default and can be managed in Settings/Preferences | Advanced Settings | Search Everywhere.

IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2 introduces colored headers to simplify navigation between multiple open projects. You can now assign a unique color and icon to each of your projects, making them easier to distinguish in your workspace. Headers now come with predefined colors by default, but you can customize them. To set a new color for your project, first right-click on a header to access the context menu. Then select the Change Project Color option and choose your desired color from the suggested list or by browsing the color palette. If you’d like to disable this feature, simply deselect the Show Project Gradient option in the context menu.

For v2023.2, we’ve refined the user experience with the Light theme by introducing the Light with Light Header alternative, which features matching light colors for window headers, tooltips, and notification balloons.

If you use full screen mode in the new UI on macOS, the window controls are now displayed right in the main toolbar, not in the floating bar as before.

For the convenience of Linux users, the native header of the operating system has been removed in the new UI, resulting in a cleaner interface. By default, you will now see the IDE’s custom header, which offers a range of customization options to tailor your workspace. If you want to revert the header to its previous appearance, uncheck the Merge main menu with window title option in Settings | Appearance & Behavior | Appearance | UI Options.

In Settings / Preferences | Editor | Inspections, code samples now include syntax highlighting, which makes it easier to understand what triggers an inspection and decide whether you want it to be active or inactive.

In the Project view, there’s a new Open Directories with Single Click option that makes expanding and collapsing the project folders quicker and more responsive. The option is available from the drop-down menu once you click on the kebab (three vertical dots) menu.

We’ve expanded the customization options for the new UI’s main toolbar. You can now use a dropdown menu to quickly choose actions that you want to add to the toolbar. To do so, right-click on any widget, select Add to Main Toolbar, and explore the available options.

To make it easier to configure the IDE for your specific projects and extend its functionality with plugins, we have updated the UI for the Settings/Preferences | Plugins section. It now includes a set of suggested plugins that is determined automatically based on your project specifics and appears at the top of the list.

We’ve reworked the UI for the running and debugging actions in the Services tool window to make the look and feel of the toolbar consistent with that of the main Run/Debug widget.

We have improved and expanded Java inspections to help you maintain high-quality code and detect potential issues more effectively. The new Incorrect ‘MessageFormat’ pattern inspection will warn you when pattern references do not match the arguments, and it will also detect incorrect usages of quotes and braces in MessageFormat patterns. Also, the IDE now reports calls with explicit ChronoField or ChronoUnit arguments and suggests replacing them with calls of more specific methods, thus simplifying the code. Learn more about the new inspections and other code analysis improvements in IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2 in this blog post.

IntelliJ IDEA now features improved @snippet tag functionality in Javadoc comments. It allows Markup comments within the @snippet tag and renders them properly in the documentation. Code regions are now supported, meaning you can specify a portion of code that you want to refer to in a Javadoc comment. In addition, the IDE now supports the inclusion of external snippets within the @snippet tag, allowing you to reference code snippets stored in separate files or sources and include them in Javadoc documentation.

We’ve added new ways to apply certain refactorings to several members at once. You can now invoke Extract Delegate, Extract Interface, Extract Superclass, Pull Members Up, and Push Members Down on multiple members simultaneously by selecting them right in the Project or Structure tool window. In addition, IntelliJ IDEA now supports multi-caret selection for an extended range of refactorings, including Encapsulate Fields, Move Static Members, Extract Delegate, Extract Interface, and Extract Superclass. To utilize this feature, place a caret in each member you want to apply the refactoring to, and the IDE will automatically preselect and check these members in the refactoring dialog.

To facilitate stack trace analysis and make resolving bugs quicker, IntelliJ IDEA can now accurately guess the location of a method in the report even when line numbers are not available or have diverged.

IntelliJ IDEA can now better analyze concatenations and interpolations of SQL in Java and Kotlin, detecting potentially unsafe queries and thereby protecting the code from possible SQL injection vulnerabilities.

IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2 brings enhanced Scala 3 support, with a focus on providing a streamlined development experience. Notable improvements include fixes for Scala 3 enum highlighting, navigation to enum definitions, and the correct resolution of enum cases in various contexts. The TASTy decompiler has been significantly enhanced, ensuring accurate decompilation of popular Scala libraries, such as Akka, Cats, Play, ZIO, and others. Additionally, the integration of scala-expression-compiler into the debugger provides a better debugging experience for Scala developers. Other improvements include enhanced completion hints for Scala 3’s Universal Apply Methods, in-editor support for IArray, and improved support for the “fewer braces” syntax.

In this release, ScalaDoc’s Quick Documentation aligns more closely with Javadoc's. Annotations, keywords, and literals in displayed declarations are now highlighted based on the selected theme. The list of extended traits and classes is split into multiple lines if it exceeds the available space. Additionally, Scala 3 keywords are now supported in the documentation.

The new release comes with many fixes to invalid type inference in some complex or simply rare cases, such as when types have complicated bounds, when a sealed trait hierarchy might be unclear, or in complex pattern matching.

In light of Zinc’s recent performance improvements, we’ve made it the default incremental compiler in v2023.2. This ensures comprehensive support for incremental compilation of new Scala 3 features, including inline methods.

Sub-folders of the target folder are no longer included automatically as sources unless they are marked as managed. This speeds up searching in projects that generate source code. Also, the IDE now provides better support for sbt-projectmatrix.

In IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2 you can conveniently access the IntelliJ Profiler’s functionality right from the Run tool window. The new buttons allow you to invoke the Attach IntelliJ Profiler and Capture Memory Snapshot actions in a click, without having to open the Profiler tool window or start the application from scratch.

We’ve enhanced the profiling experience in IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2 by making wall-clock profiling mode the default option. This profiling method considers the total time spent in a method, including waiting time. With milliseconds as the measurement unit, it takes center stage as the more powerful and intuitive option.

When debugging your reactive application, you can now easily evaluate values of watches and local variables for Mono and Flux types. The IDE now detects them during debugging sessions and provides a corresponding get or collectList link in the Variables view, which you can click to instantly compute reactive stream items. By default, the debugger fetches the first 100 items of Flux. You can configure this number in File | Settings | Languages & Frameworks | Reactive Streams.

As of IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2, you can run and debug applications deployed to Tomcat on the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). To work with Tomcat-based applications on WSL, you’ll need to have the JAVA_HOME environment variable declared in either the /etc/environment or the ~/.bashrc file.

The IDE now provides a better user experience when setting up Swagger Codegen configurations. We’ve reworked the Edit Swagger Codegen Configuration dialog to make it easier for you to tailor run configurations to your requirements. Additionally, you can now access Swagger Codegen run configurations right from the gutter without having to specify any additional settings.

The HTTP Client is now capable of understanding Swagger and OpenAPI specifications and providing corresponding code completion options for JSON request bodies.

IntelliJ IDEA now supports Redoc UI previews for OpenAPI and Swagger specification files, including YAML and JSON files, allowing you to switch between the Redoc and Swagger UIs within the IDE. With the Redocly integration, you can access the Try it console from within IntelliJ IDEA and use it to set parameters and send requests to your API.

The IDE now provides completion for JSON object keys in JavaScript code, such as in code that uses fetch() calls or references the Axios library. Spring MVC server endpoints are currently supported, with more server frameworks coming in the future.

With IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2, it is now possible to share common JavaScript code for HTTP Client request handlers via imported modules.

You can now use the HTTP Client CLI in IntelliJ IDEA to interact with GraphQL APIs and establish WebSocket connections with services, for example for tests or automation scripts.

We have streamlined the user experience when working with custom configuration beans in Spring within IntelliJ IDEA. The IDE now provides code completion and validation in properties and YAML configuration files, without you needing to set up the Spring Boot Configuration Annotation Processor.

We’ve extended IntelliJ IDEA’s support for utilizing AspectJ in Spring applications. The IDE now provides analysis and completion for Kotlin code, just as it already did for Java code.

In IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2, we’ve introduced a new inspection to eliminate the so-called “Norway problem” and prevent the unintended misinterpretation of Boolean values in YAML files. When a list primarily consists of strings but contains a Boolean-like literal, IntelliJ IDEA will highlight this literal, indicating a potential inconsistency, and suggest adding quotes to it. If the list is mostly composed of Boolean-like literals (such as true, false, off, on, yes, or no), any literal that deviates from this pattern is highlighted as a possible error, although no specific quick-fixes are suggested in this scenario.

Working with the AsyncAPI specification format in IntelliJ IDEA is now much easier. The IDE supports schema validation functionality and provides code completion for references, the Endpoints view, and the Editor Preview pane.

It is now easy to access and preview the contents of a Docker image layer in the Services tool window. Select the image from the list, select Show layers, and click Analyze image for more information. This opens a list of the files stored in the layer, from which you can easily open the selected file in the editor by right-clicking on the file and clicking Open File (or Download File for binaries).

It is now possible to set a Docker run configuration to run before another configuration by designating it as a Before Launch task. The IDE will wait for the container that is currently running to become healthy, and then it will launch the next run configuration. To put a Docker run configuration in a queue, first create it and then add it to the relevant container via Modify options | Add before launch task | Run configuration.

We have introduced a new feature that allows you to set up multiple kubeconfig files within a single project. This simplifies the experience of handling multiple clusters or working with environments on different clusters in the same project. To set the files up, go to File | Settings | Build, Execution, Deployment | Kubernetes.

You can now view logs for deployments in Kubernetes clusters in the Services tool window. Right-click on Deployment in the tree and then select Follow Log or Download Log from the context menu.

In IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2, we’ve been working on improving how we present type errors in JavaScript and TypeScript. Your errors and warnings will now be formatted in a more readable way, making it easier to spot problems in your code. This works for all TypeScript errors, some of the most common JavaScript errors, and even localized errors.

IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2 supports CSS nesting. We’ve implemented syntax support and an inspection that alerts you if the nested selector starts with an identifier or functional notation.

Support for Vue Language Server (VLS), a.k.a. Volar, provides more accurate error detection and better type information in the quick navigation and documentation popups. By default, VLS will be used for TypeScript v5.0 and higher, and the wrapper over the TypeScript service will be used for earlier TypeScript versions. You can set the Vue service to use VLS integration on all TypeScript versions under Settings | Languages & Frameworks | TypeScript | Vue.

We’ve added a new set of live templates for React hooks, available under Settings | Editor | Live Templates | React hooks. To use a live template, type its abbreviation in the editor and press Tab to expand it.

You can now connect to Redis Cluster and have the same feature set as with standalone Redis. When connecting to a cluster, jdbc:redis:cluster: must be entered before the desired URL. Choose the appropriate connection type to achieve this. If SSH tunneling is required for the connection to the cluster, then the hosts and ports for all nodes in the cluster should be indicated in the URL.

For v2023.2, we’ve reworked the schema migration functionality. The main difference is that the same object is now placed on the same line in both parts of the dialog, making it easier to understand which objects are going to be added, removed, or changed in the target schema.

The Data Editor and Viewer settings page has a new Time zone field for setting the time zone in which the datetime value should be displayed.

Shared databases and their contents are now introspected. The datashares that these databases are created on are also introspected.

IntelliJ IDEA is now fully compatible with Maven 4.0.0-alpha, the latest version of Maven.

• With this release, we’ve introduced an LSP API for plugin developers who want to use a specific LSP server for coding assistance in the IDE. If you’ve made your own programming language or framework, you can get it supported in the IDE by creating an LSP server and a plugin. Please note that this feature is available only in the paid version of the IDE. Learn more.
• We have decomposed the Big Data Tools plugin, allowing you to use its parts separately. This means six new plugins are available for IntelliJ IDEA: Kafka, Spark, Flink, Remote File Systems, Big Data File Viewer, and Zeppelin. If you need all six, installing the umbrella Big Data Tools plugin is still possible and a convenient way to get them all in one click.
• IntelliJ IDEA's bundled Android plugin now provides the features of Android Studio Giraffe Beta 2, including support for Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) 8.0.0. Please note that this support doesn't include the features that require signing in to a Firebase account.
• Starting from v2023.2, the default value of the maximum heap size (-Xmx) has been changed to 2 GB.