Kilo Code for JetBrains: Free AI Coding Plugin

Installation

Kilo Code v7 for JetBrains is officially available. It uses a native JetBrains interface, works well in remote development split mode, and does not require Node.js.

The JetBrains plugin provides the best native JetBrains UX for working with an AI coding agent, and it improves with every release. Enable automatic plugin updates to get the latest fixes and improvements as soon as they are available.

Install the JetBrains plugin

  1. Open IntelliJ IDEA or another JetBrains IDE
  2. Go to Settings → Plugins
  3. Search for Kilo Code in the Marketplace tab
  4. Click Install or Update and restart your IDE if prompted
  5. Open Settings → Appearance & Behavior → System Settings → Updates, then enable Update plugins automatically (recommended)
JetBrains Plugins Marketplace showing the Kilo Code plugin search result
Search for Kilo Code in the JetBrains Plugins Marketplace.
JetBrains Updates settings with Update plugins automatically enabled
Enable automatic plugin updates to receive Kilo Code fixes and improvements.

Install with bundled Kilo Core

The Marketplace build is best for most users. Use the bundled Kilo Core build when your IDE cannot download the Kilo Core runtime after installation, such as on locked-down corporate networks, behind strict proxy or TLS inspection, in offline development environments, or where corporate policy blocks applications from downloading executables at runtime.

The bundled build ships the JetBrains plugin with Kilo Core included. The install is larger, but first launch does not need a separate runtime download.

  1. Open Settings → Plugins

  2. Click the gear icon and choose Manage Plugin Repositories...

  3. Click + and add the Kilo Code repository URL:

    https://kilo-org.github.io/kilocode/jetbrains/updatePlugins.xml

  4. Click OK, then install or update Kilo Code from Settings → Plugins

  5. Restart the IDE if prompted

JetBrains Plugins settings with Manage Plugin Repositories selected from the gear menu
Open Manage Plugin Repositories from the Plugins settings gear menu.
JetBrains Custom Plugin Repositories dialog with the Kilo Code repository URL added
Add the Kilo Code custom plugin repository URL.

After restart, open the Kilo Code tool window and choose ... → Core. The menu footer should show Bundled Core with the version and architecture.

Kilo Code tool window Core menu showing Bundled Core and the current architecture
Confirm that the plugin is using Bundled Core.

If you used the v7 EAP

ℹ️Info

Remove the EAP repository URL from Settings → Plugins → Manage Plugin Repositories. The official v7 plugin is now available from the default JetBrains Marketplace channel, and leaving the custom repository configured can keep your IDE on EAP updates.

Supported IDEs

  • IntelliJ IDEA
  • WebStorm
  • PyCharm
  • PhpStorm
  • GoLand
  • Rider
  • CLion
  • RubyMine
  • DataGrip

Settings

Open Settings → Tools → Kilo Code to configure the plugin. The JetBrains plugin reads and writes the same shared kilo.jsonc config files as the CLI and the VS Code extension, so changes apply across clients. See Settings for config file locations and precedence.

  • Auto-Approve — set per-tool permission levels (Allow / Ask / Deny) and manage granular command and path exceptions without editing config by hand. Permission prompts offer one-time approvals alongside saved allow/reject rules. See Auto-Approving Actions for the shared permission model.
  • Context — toggle auto-compaction, set the auto-compaction limit (the percentage of the model window that triggers compaction), enable pruning of old tool outputs, and manage file watcher ignore patterns. See Context Condensing and .kilocodeignore for what these settings control.
  • Agent Behavior → Skills — inspect loaded skills, add extra skill sources (local paths or remote URLs), edit or remove custom skills, and open skill files in the editor. See Skills for the skill format and discovery rules.

Reviewing session changes

  • Modified files per turn — each assistant turn that changed files shows a Modified card with the affected files and their diff stats. Expand a file to see its diff inline, or open all of the turn's changes in the Changed files diff viewer.
  • Branch comparison — when the workspace differs from the base branch, the session header shows a changes badge. Click it (Compare with base branch) to open a diff editor with a file tree and per-file navigation.
  • Stale diff refresh — diff views detect when files change on disk and offer a Refresh action to reload them instead of showing outdated content.

Permission requests

When the agent asks for several approvals at once, permission requests queue up instead of replacing each other. Resolve the current request to advance to the next one in the queue.