Internal Actions - UI Inspector

The UI Inspector is a tool to interrogate elements of the IntelliJ IDEA UI to get an internal description of each element. UI elements can be tested interactively by clicking on the element while the UI Inspector is enabled.

Enabling the UI Inspector

Before using the UI Inspector, it must be enabled by selecting the menu item Tools | Internal Actions | UI | UI Inspector. The enabled state of the UI Inspector is modal; it remains enabled until it is disabled by selecting the UI Inspector menu item again.

Using the UI Inspector

While enabled, centering the cursor on a UI element and pressing Control/Cmd+Alt when clicking the mouse reveals the properties of the Swing component.

For example, to get information about the Build Project button's icon (hammer) on the toolbar (highlighted in green), put the mouse cursor on the icon and press Control/Cmd+Alt while clicking the mouse.

The UI Inspector displays that the icon has the internal path AllIcons.Actions.Compile:

Additional Properties

Various components used in the IntelliJ Platform expose additional properties. These can be useful to locate the underlying implementation, related Action, etc.

Type	Place	Properties
`AnAction`	Action Button Menu Item	`Action` - `AnAction` implementation `Action ID` - Action `id` `Action Plugin ID` - contributing plugin
`ActionToolbar`	Action Toolbar	`Toolbar Group` - Action Group ID `All Groups` - contained Action Group IDs
`DialogWrapper`	Modal Dialog	`dialogWrapperClass` - `DialogWrapper` implementation
`GutterMark`	Editor Gutter Icon	`gutter renderer` - `GutterMark` implementation
`IntentionAction`/`QuickFix`	Popup Menu in Editor	`intention action`/`quick fix` - `IntentionAction`/`QuickFix` implementation
`Tree`	Tree	`treeModelClass` - `javax.swing.tree.TreeModel` implementation

Custom Swing components can also provide additional properties via UiInspectorContextProvider (2020.1 and later).

Last modified: 01 July 2022