Junie Now Integrated Into the AI Chat

Irina Chichikova Kirill Smelov

At JetBrains, we’re always listening closely to our users, ensuring that the products we ship provide a consistent and intuitive user experience. One area for improvement that we both noticed is the presence of two separate UIs – one for Junie, the coding agent by JetBrains, and one for the JetBrains AI chat.

We’ve now taken the first step toward uniting the two interfaces, making Junie a first-class JetBrains AI citizen. Starting today, this functionality is available in Beta, meaning you can select Junie right from the AI chat and start using it there.

Our intention is to eventually deprecate and fully merge the separate Junie interface into the AI chat, leaving a single space for you to use Junie and other AI functionality. Your feedback during this stage is especially important! Try the new unified experience and let us know what you think – your input will help us make sure it best serves your needs.

We expect the user experience provided by the current Beta version of Junie inside the AI chat to be on par with that of the plugin version. However, you can expect more improvements in the future.

Why did we have two separate UIs in the first place?

When coding agents first appeared, we explored multiple R&D directions in parallel to identify the most effective IDE experience. That exploration led us to develop two chat interfaces, each testing a different approach.

With the industry now converging on clearer UX standards for coding agents, we’re unifying these two interfaces into a single, consistent one. It’s a natural evolution that allows us to streamline the Junie experience without compromising on innovation.

Transition period

The standalone Junie plugin will remain available to help you adjust to the change at your own pace. Your existing settings – active models, Action Allowlist, MCP server, and more – will be retained and gradually merged into the unified interface. In the first iteration, Junie and the AI chat will use separate settings – changes in the AI chat won’t affect Junie, while updates in Junie will apply to both the standalone plugin and the chat version. We’ll notify you in advance of any further changes to come and do our best to make the transition as smooth as possible.

How to try it

1. Open the AI chat in your IDE.
2. Choose Junie from the agent selector.
3. Run a prompt – the agent will then download and be installed automatically.

If you haven’t installed the AI chat yet, do so by following the steps in this installation guide.

What’s next?

We’ll continue to integrate Junie’s features into the unified interface and refine the UX to ensure that AI tools in JetBrains IDEs work seamlessly together.

Your feedback matters! Tell us which AI use cases are most important for you and what you’d like to see next by submitting a feature request. This helps us ensure our priorities are aligned with those of our users.

For hardcore Junie fans, our Discord is still open. Join it to get all the latest updates, discuss your experiences, and share your feedback with the Junie team and community.

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