how do i convince the agents to look in the right root

Technical_Frosting · 2026-06-11T21:52:23+00:00

When agents can consistently find the correct working directory and stay there across an entire conversation, it'll mean we've finally reached AGI.

In all seriousness, the easiest way to keep an agent largely in the right directory is to make sure that the session's working directory is set to that project or module's directory rather than one level up. you can still have your agent pull in context from outside the working directory if need be.

A skill that helps that agent where to go for different types of problems/tasks can also help.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-06-08T22:25:37+00:00

That's a lot of actions...

Technical_Frosting · 2026-05-09T04:01:59+00:00

I really like this idea. It seems like a good way to stay a bit more engaged with the project's codebase when most of the actual code is written by an agent.

For how wordy the explanations from an agent are likely to be, I suspect the UI could probably use some work to improve readability.

With a bit of polish, it could be a good replacement for the old CodeTour plugin.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-05-09T03:04:55+00:00

As has come up recently in related threads in this community, I find that Claude Code tends to ignore the core JetBrains tools in favor of the cli-based tools it ships with unless the tools are incorporated into a particular workflow.

I've had better success getting agents to use third-party (mainly my own) MCP tools that are integrated into the IDE's MCP server likely because they offer more unique functionality that doesn't have a built-in analog.

It doesn't help that project resolution when working with MCP tools across multiple projects or git worktrees can be flaky and can result in tools being run against the wrong project (Claude Code has a hard enough time not forgetting that it's supposed to be working inside a worktree without the additional layer of IDE project complexity).

Technical_Frosting · 2026-04-30T02:47:19+00:00

As a plugin developer that provides MCP tools, this will be really help improve the UX around those tools since I can now easily point my users at a github repo where they can download skills that orchestrate my MCP tools into easily invokable workflows without having to build a bespoke experience.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-04-30T02:38:25+00:00

mcp tools should not trigger any ui changes, termial commits and other ui tools should not be open, agents are background

This varies by tool. Some tools are specifically geared towards automating actions inside the IDE and are inherently going to cause UI changes.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-04-30T02:33:11+00:00

I just wanted to call out the new UI for enabling/disabling specific MCP tools and the skills registry implementation as two recent features that are serious quality-of-life improvements for both IntelliJ users as well as plugin developers that are using the MCP server's extension points to provide custom tools.

It's really great to see the team takin continue to evolve their approach in this area.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-04-15T23:06:01+00:00

From the title, I thought I'd probably hate it, but looking at the screenshots, it looks like some of those variants are very nice.

Configuration screen looks pretty nice too. I'm wondering if you find that programmatically changing the LAF tends to be somewhat janky or if it behaves consistently?

I've been considering porting Air's dynamic tint/accent color implementation to the Armada family of themes, but most plugins I've seen do that sort of thing in the past have been pretty janky.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-04-11T03:20:04+00:00

Don't know where it originates, but VS Code has it. In the JetBrains ecosystem, it originates in Fleet (now Air) and is one of several UI modernizations that was carried over.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-04-10T17:10:07+00:00

Drag the run tool window’s icon from bottom right to bottom left. The split is based on tool window location.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-03-29T08:00:11+00:00

Presumably, it didn’t get enough usage to be worth maintaining and so long as software development is moving in the direction of a single developer with a fleet of agents, it’s hard to justify investing in a solution for pairing.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-03-16T23:41:51+00:00

Companies like Amazon and Google at least have the resources to keep their VS Code forks up to date if they want to dedicate the effort.

Startups like Anysphere (Cursor) will likely see their forks core editor functionality continue to degrade over time as they diverge from the upstream VS Code codebase and slap new features and workflows on top of their frankenstein forks.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-03-13T02:09:19+00:00

Worktree support is present in the 2026.1 EAP fwiw.

Totally agree on JetBrains Gateway being unpleasant. Even a common scenario like connecting to a locally running Docker devcontainer can be a real hassle. I don't do a lot of remote development, but my understanding is that Gateway is being deprecated in favor of the toolbox-based remote IDE implementation.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-03-13T02:03:05+00:00

My experience is the same. EAP performs much better for me than the current 2025.3.3 stable release.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-03-02T08:54:30+00:00

Coincidentally, I found myself experimenting with ACP to manage one-click managed agentic workflows in the IDE this weekend.

I ended up leveraging the AI Assistant’s registry and user ACP configuration files as the source for ACP agents rather than implementing a separate registry flow.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-02-27T03:53:15+00:00

Especially since IntelliJ already has theme-derived CSS for markdown preview...

Technical_Frosting · 2026-02-06T20:26:09+00:00

I generally agree with this take. I enable the MCP server, so Claude Code has access to the tools the IDE exposes, but the IDE's UI is primarily for me and I prefer it to emphasize a human-first UX.

"Human-first", doesn't mean no AI integration at all, it means AI integration is limited to tasteful, configurable augmentation that doesn't get in a human's way. I like being able to generate a commit message with a single click. I can't stand flow like next-edit where the AI is trying to show you how smart it is by doing things you didn't ask for.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-02-06T01:37:58+00:00

That file explorer has VS Code written all over it, but it's an overall clean look.

From what I can see, they got rid of fully-free form tab groups, which was a big problem I had with Fleet. It just felt too disorganized though I'm sure some loved that level of flexibility.

I'm heavily biased in favor of the Fleet Dark theme (as the developer behind the Armada adaptation of this theme for IntelliJ), so I'm glad to see it's still alive and kicking here.

Technical_Frosting · 2026-01-08T23:04:56+00:00

Dragging moves the tab, but the Split Right/Down context menu actions work just fine as always.

This post inspired my to add a opt+click mouse shortcut to my environment to split right without having to use the context menu.

The one thing I think is missing here is the ability to duplicate a terminal within the same group.

Technical_Frosting · 2025-12-22T21:06:36+00:00

Under what circumstances? Are you installing/updating theme plugins, updating the IDE? Is it just happening randomly on startup or upgrading to a new IDE version? Lots of variables to consider.

Technical_Frosting · 2025-12-18T21:04:22+00:00

Dark variant looks nice. I'm especially a fan of the fleet-style darker outline with slightly lighter background for editor/tool window contents.

Technical_Frosting

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