Creating a Plugin Gradle Project

This documentation page describes a Gradle-based plugin project generated with the New Project Wizard, but the project generated with IntelliJ Platform Plugin Template covers all the described files and directories.

Creating a Plugin with New Project Wizard

Create IDE Plugin

Launch the New Project wizard via the File | New | Project... action and provide the following information:

Select the IDE Plugin generator type from the list on the left.
Specify the project Name and Location.
Choose the Plugin option in the project Type.
Only in IntelliJ IDEA older than 2023.1:
Choose the Language the plugin will use for implementation. For this example select the Kotlin option. See also Kotlin for Plugin Developers for more information.
Projects generated with IntelliJ IDEA 2023.1 or newer, support both Kotlin and Java sources out of the box. Project generator automatically creates $PLUGIN_DIR$/src/main/kotlin sources directory. To add Java sources, create $PLUGIN_DIR$/src/main/java directory.
Provide the Group which is typically an inverted company domain (e.g. com.example.mycompany). It is used for the Gradle property project.group value in the project's Gradle build script.
Provide the Artifact which is the default name of the build project artifact (without a version). It is also used for the Gradle property rootProject.name value in the project's settings.gradle.kts file. For this example, enter my_plugin.
Select JDK 11. This JDK will be the default JRE used to run Gradle, and the JDK version used to compile the plugin sources.

After providing all the information, click the Create button to generate the project.

Components of a Wizard-Generated Gradle IntelliJ Platform Plugin

For the example my_plugin created with the steps describes above, the IDE Plugin generator creates the following directory content:

my_plugin
├── .run
│   └── Run IDE with Plugin.run.xml
├── gradle
│   └── wrapper
│       ├── gradle-wrapper.jar
│       └── gradle-wrapper.properties
├── src
│   └── main
│       ├── kotlin
│       └── resources
│           └── META-INF
│               ├── plugin.xml
│               └── pluginIcon.svg
├── .gitignore
├── build.gradle.kts
├── gradle.properties
├── gradlew
├── gradlew.bat
└── settings.gradle.kts

The default IntelliJ Platform build.gradle.kts file (see next paragraph).
The gradle.properties file, containing properties used by Gradle build script.
The settings.gradle.kts file, containing a definition of the rootProject.name and required repositories.
The Gradle Wrapper files, and in particular the gradle-wrapper.properties file, which specifies the version of Gradle to be used to build the plugin. If needed, the IntelliJ IDEA Gradle plugin downloads the version of Gradle specified in this file.
The META-INF directory under the default main source set contains the plugin configuration file and plugin icon.
The Run Plugin run configuration.

The generated my_plugin project build.gradle.kts file:

plugins {
  id("java")
  id("org.jetbrains.kotlin.jvm") version "1.8.20"
  id("org.jetbrains.intellij") version "1.13.3"
}

group = "com.example"
version = "1.0-SNAPSHOT"

repositories {
  mavenCentral()
}

// Configure Gradle IntelliJ Plugin
// Read more: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/docs/intellij/tools-gradle-intellij-plugin.html
intellij {
  version.set("2022.2.5")
  type.set("IC") // Target IDE Platform

  plugins.set(listOf(/* Plugin Dependencies */))
}

tasks {
  // Set the JVM compatibility versions
  withType<JavaCompile> {
    sourceCompatibility = "17"
    targetCompatibility = "17"
  }
  withType<org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile> {
    kotlinOptions.jvmTarget = "17"
  }

  patchPluginXml {
    sinceBuild.set("222")
    untilBuild.set("232.*")
  }

  signPlugin {
    certificateChain.set(System.getenv("CERTIFICATE_CHAIN"))
    privateKey.set(System.getenv("PRIVATE_KEY"))
    password.set(System.getenv("PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD"))
  }

  publishPlugin {
    token.set(System.getenv("PUBLISH_TOKEN"))
  }
}

Three Gradle plugins are explicitly declared:
- The Gradle Java plugin (java).
- The Kotlin Gradle plugin (org.jetbrains.kotlin.jvm).
- The Gradle IntelliJ Plugin (org.jetbrains.intellij).
The Group from the New Project wizard is the project.group value.
The sourceCompatibility line is injected to enforce using Java 11 JDK to compile Java sources.
The values of the intellij.version and intellij.type properties specify the version and type of the IntelliJ Platform to be used to build the plugin.
The empty placeholder list for plugin dependencies.
The values of the patchPluginXml.sinceBuild and patchPluginXml.untilBuild properties specifying the minimum and maximum versions of the IDE build the plugin is compatible with.
The initial signPlugin and publishPlugin tasks configuration. See the Publishing Plugin With Gradle section for more information.

Plugin Gradle Properties and Plugin Configuration File Elements

The Gradle properties rootProject.name and project.group will not, in general, match the respective plugin configuration file plugin.xml elements <name> and <id>. There is no IntelliJ Platform-related reason they should as they serve different functions.

The <name> element (used as the plugin's display name) is often the same as rootProject.name, but it can be more explanatory.

The <id> value must be a unique identifier over all plugins, typically a concatenation of the specified Group and Artifact. Please note that it is impossible to change the <id> of a published plugin without losing automatic updates for existing installations.

Running a Plugin With the runIde Gradle task

Gradle projects are run from the IDE's Gradle Tool window.

Adding Code to the Project

Before running my_plugin, some code can be added to provide simple functionality. See the Creating Actions tutorial for step-by-step instructions for adding a menu action.

Executing the Plugin

The IDE Plugin generator automatically creates the Run Plugin run configuration that can be executed via the Run | Run... action or can be found in the Gradle tool window under the Run Configurations node.

To execute the Gradle runIde task directly, open the Gradle tool window and search for the runIde task under the Tasks node. If it's not on the list, hit the re-import button in the toolbar at the top of the Gradle tool window. When the runIde task is visible, double-click it to execute.

To debug your plugin in a standalone IDE instance, please see How to Debug Your Own IntelliJ IDEA Instance blog post.

Last modified: 25 April 2023