Saikat

My Essential IntelliJ IDEA Plugins

My Essential IntelliJ IDEA Plugins for a More Productive Workflow

I spend a considerable chunk of my day inside IntelliJ IDEA. It’s a mighty IDE right out of the box, but there are some amazing plugins too! They can automate tedious tasks, enforce quality, help navigate code faster, or even make the IDE look cooler.

Finding the right plugins can be overwhelming, though, given the sheer number available on the JetBrains Marketplace. So, I wanted to share my personal, curated list of plugins that I find genuinely useful and regularly rely on. These have helped me streamline my workflow, write better code, and stay productive (sorted alphabetically for easy reference)!

(Note: Plugin availability and features can change. I’m sharing what works for me as of March 2025, based on my typical Java/Spring development workflow. YMMV!)

My Go-To IntelliJ IDEA Plugins:

Checkstyle-IDEA

  • Why I Use It: Maintaining consistent code style across a project, especially in a team, is crucial. Checkstyle helps enforce predefined coding standards (like Google Java Style or Custom) directly in the IDE. It flags violations as I type, saving me time during code reviews and ensuring readability.
  • Category: Code Inspection
  • Link: Checkstyle-IDEA

Grep Console

  • Why I Use It: Console logs can get incredibly noisy, especially when debugging complex applications. Grep Console is a lifesaver. It lets me filter and highlight console output based on patterns (like errors, specific log levels, or thread names). I can define custom highlighting rules, making it much easier to spot important information amidst the flood of logs.
  • Category: Utilities
  • Link: Grep Console

IdeaVim

  • Why I Use It: If you’re coming from a Vim background or love Vim’s modal editing and powerful keybindings, this plugin is essential. IdeaVim brings a surprisingly complete Vim emulation layer into IntelliJ IDEA. It takes some getting used to if you’re new to Vim, but for enthusiasts like me, it dramatically speeds up text editing and navigation without leaving the IDE (I can disable it easily when required!).
  • Category: Code Editing
  • Link: IdeaVim

JPA Buddy

  • Why I Use It: Working with JPA, Hibernate, or Spring Data JPA can involve a lot of boilerplate code and configuration. JPA Buddy simplifies this significantly. I use it for generating entities from database tables (and vice-versa), creating Spring Data repositories, generating DTOs, writing JPQL queries with completion, and managing Liquibase changelogs. It’s packed with features that save me tons of time on persistence-related tasks.
  • Category: Database
  • Link: JPA Buddy

Key Promoter X

  • Why I Use It: IntelliJ IDEA has a keyboard shortcut for almost everything, but learning them can be tough. Key Promoter X is my personal shortcut coach. Whenever I use the mouse to perform an action that has a keyboard shortcut, pops up a notification showing me the shortcut. It’s a non-intrusive way to gradually learn and adopt more efficient keyboard-driven habits.
  • Category: Productivity
  • Link: Key Promoter X

Maven Helper

  • Why I Use It: For anyone working extensively with Maven projects, this plugin is invaluable. It provides easy ways to visualize and analyze dependency conflicts, run specific Maven goals, and manage profiles. The dependency analyzer view alone has saved me countless hours tracking down tricky classpath issues. (If you’re primarily a Gradle user, check out the built-in Gradle support or relevant Gradle plugins).
  • Category: Build Tools
  • Link: Maven Helper

MetricsReloaded

  • Why I Use It: Sometimes code feels too complex, but quantifying it helps pinpoint actual problem areas. MetricsReloaded analyzes code complexity using metrics like Cyclomatic Complexity, Lack of Cohesion of Methods (LCOM), and others. I use it during refactoring efforts to identify methods or classes that might be doing too much and could benefit from simplification or splitting.
  • Category: Code Quality
  • Link: MetricsReloaded

Nyan Progress Bar

  • Why I Use It: Okay, this one doesn’t strictly boost productivity, but development should be fun too, right? It replaces the standard progress bars (like during builds or indexing) with the animated Nyan Cat. It’s a small thing, but it brings a smile to my face during those waiting periods.
  • Category: Fun
  • Link: Nyan Progress Bar

PlantUML Integration

  • Why I Use It: Visualizing system architecture, sequence flows, or database schemas can be incredibly helpful. This plugin lets me create various UML diagrams using the simple PlantUML text-based syntax directly within the IDE. I can write the diagram code, preview it instantly, and keep the diagrams version-controlled alongside my code. It’s great for documentation and design discussions.
  • Category: Diagramming
  • Link: PlantUML integration

String Manipulation

  • Why I Use It: How often do you need to sort lines, switch cases, filter, trim, duplicate, or perform other common text operations? String Manipulation provides a huge collection of actions for transforming text. I find it incredibly handy for tidying up data, refactoring text blocks, or preparing code snippets without needing external tools.
  • Category: Code Editing
  • Link: String Manipulation

WireMock

  • Why I Use It: When testing components that interact with external HTTP services, I need a reliable way to mock those dependencies. The WireMock plugin integrates the popular WireMock library into IntelliJ. It allows me to easily create and manage mock API stubs, record traffic to generate stubs and run the WireMock server directly from the IDE. This significantly simplifies my integration testing setup.
  • Category: Testing
  • Link: WireMock

Quick File Preview

  • Why I Use It: While IntelliJ has a basic preview (Space bar in Project View), I prefer the behavior this plugin offers, which feels more like VS Code or Sublime Text. It opens files in a temporary ‘preview’ tab with just a single click (or keyboard navigation) in the Project View. This makes quickly scanning through multiple files much faster for me, as I don’t have to explicitly double-click each one to open it fully. It also has neat options like single-click folder expansion and focusing on already opened tabs. (Note: It works best if you disable the built-in ‘Open Files with Single Click’ option in IntelliJ).
  • Category: Productivity
  • Link: Quick File Preview

Final Thoughts

This is just my list of essential IntelliJ IDEA plugins – the ones I wouldn’t want to code without. The beauty of IntelliJ’s ecosystem is its flexibility. I highly recommend browsing the JetBrains Marketplace yourself, especially checking out categories relevant to your specific tech stack (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, specific language support).

Don’t install plugins blindly, though! Too many plugins can sometimes slow down the IDE. Choose ones that solve a real problem or significantly improve your specific workflow. Happy coding!