What’s Next for CLion: The 2025.3 Roadmap
We’ve begun work on our next major release, 2025.3, which we plan to introduce in November. After reviewing your feedback and our strategic goals, we’ve prioritized the following:
🚀 Transitioning to the CLion Nova language engine as the default.
🏗️ Improvements to project formats and build tools.
🎛️ Improvements to features for embedded development.
🤖 Support for Junie, JetBrains’ smart coding agent.
Read on to learn more about our planned updates.
Our team is committed to creating an IDE that makes development smooth and productive. However, the following is only a preliminary roadmap. We can’t guarantee that all the issues and features listed below will be addressed and implemented in CLion 2025.3. Unexpected circumstances could require us to modify our plans or implementation timelines for some items.
CLion Nova as the default engine
The CLion Nova language engine has been the default for new CLion users since v2024.2. Over the past year, we’ve added the most requested features and fixed critical bugs. We’re now ready to set CLion Nova as the default engine for all users in v2025.3.
Please note that you will still be able to use the legacy CLion Classic engine. However, we don’t plan to allocate further resources to its development. All new language-specific features will be available only in CLion Nova.
We’ll explain this update in more detail in an upcoming blog post.
Project formats and build tools
Sysbuild support for nRF Connect SDK projects: In v2025.1, we introduced sysbuild support for Zephyr West projects, which works well with projects that use the vanilla Zephyr RTOS. However, the nRF Connect SDK uses a forked version of Zephyr and sysbuild as the default build tool, while CLion currently expects the default configuration to be non-sysbuild. As a result, CLion cannot read the nRF Connect SDK project information, so users cannot run or debug projects. We plan to solve this issue in v2025.3 (CPP-43380). For now, depending on the configuration, you can enter --no-sysbuild or --sysbuild in the advanced settings of your West project to run or debug an nRF Connect SDK project.
Support for Bazel 9: As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the Bazel plugin integration in CLion, we plan to add support for the next major version of the build tool. We recently took over the development of the Bazel for CLion plugin from Google. Our main goals are to improve the plugin’s stability and enhance the user experience.
Embedded development
Bundled PlatformIO: The current PlatformIO integration is provided by the corresponding plugin. In v2025.3, we plan to bundle the plugin so that you won’t need to install PlatformIO manually. We’ve already made several usability improvements to the current integration to ensure a smooth transition. These improvements include providing more information on various errors and how to fix them, enabling the import of a project using platformio.ini when no project model is available, and suggesting the reloading of a PlatformIO project when new files are added to the project root.
Improvements to live watches: In v2025.2, we introduced the live watches feature, which allows you to monitor global variables in real time. In the next release, we plan to enhance the feature’s functionality by enabling you to view structure and peripheral registry values, export data in the CSV format, use autocompletion for variable names, and more.
Improvements to ESP-IDF: We’re working on better integration with the ESP-IDF framework, improving it step by step. Several related updates will be introduced in v2025.3.
Debugger
Improvements to Qt renderers: Qt renderers, introduced earlier this year, allow you to view Qt-specific variables in a human-readable form. For the upcoming release, our focus will be on fixing some bugs that users reported (CPP-43815, CPP-44928). If you’re new to working with Qt projects in CLion, check out our documentation or this blog post from our colleagues at Qt: Developing Qt applications with CLion.
Support for Junie
Junie is an AI coding agent that can serve as a full-fledged pair programmer. We’d hoped to complete the Junie integration in the previous release, but, unfortunately, it took more time than expected. We plan to complete it for the next release.
Conclusion
The Early Access Program is just around the corner and will give you the chance to try all the new features planned for the next major release for free. In the meantime, upgrade to CLion 2025.2 if you haven’t already done so, and let us know what you think!
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