IntelliJ IDEA 2026.3 Ships Agents Into the IDE, Makes Debugging Visible, and Settles Long-Neglected UI Debts
Click "终码一生", follow, and pin the official account
Daily technical dry goods, delivered as soon as possible!
This update has no flashy AI slogans, but it pays off the debts of agent development, debugging visibility, and daily efficiency in one go.
IntelliJ IDEA 2026.3 has been released. If JetBrains was still figuring out how to cram AI into the IDE in the past two years, this version gives a clear answer: Air is officially built in, agents become first-class citizens; the debugger gains unprecedented runtime insight; and those "small features" waited for years finally arrive.
01, Air Officially Built In: Your Agents, Your Subscriptions, Managed by the IDE
This is the most strategically significant change in 2026.3. JetBrains Air is no longer just an EAP plugin; it is an agent development layer bundled and enabled with the IDE.
Its core logic is pragmatic: it does not lock agents in, and it does not force you to change your subscription.
Air is compatible with agents that follow the ACP (Agent Client Protocol). Agents you already have installed on your machine, such as Claude Code and Codex, are auto-detected by Air and can be connected with one click. Your existing provider subscriptions, API keys, and even custom base URLs can be carried over directly; you do not need to buy another JetBrains AI license just to use Air.
More critical is the review loop. After an agent modifies code, you can anchor comments on specific lines in the diff and send them directly back to the agent, rather than struggling in a chat box to describe "change that third-line condition." Code, context, and feedback loop in the same interface.
For users still on AI Assistant, switching to Air hides AI Assistant, but skills, MCP configurations, authentication information, and chat history migrate automatically.
In one sentence: JetBrains finally admits that "agent orchestration and AI chat are two different things," and solves it with a separate layer.
02, Debugger Triple Strike: Return Values, Hibernate, Agent Debugging
Debugging is where this update delivers the most noticeable "feel improvement."
Return values are finally visible. Set a breakpoint at a method exit, and the Variables view now shows the method's return value. This long-awaited "small feature" eliminates many debugging scenarios that required temporarily adding a variable and recompiling.
The Hibernate Debugger plugin makes the persistence layer no longer a black box. Step over a repository call, and the generated SQL, bound parameter values, corresponding HQL/JPQL, and source code lines are all visible. You can filter by transaction or execution duration to quickly locate suspicious N+1 queries. Install the plugin, no extra configuration needed, and it works in Debug mode.
The ij-debugger skill hands the debugger to agents. Agents in Air can access project debug configurations, log points, and runtime diagnostics through this skill. The 2026.3 improvement: after a debugging session ends, log points and process output remain accessible; evidence does not disappear with the session. The skill also avoids invalid positions like "closing-brace breakpoints" to ensure accurate automatic analysis.
Another thing worth noting is Spring Security diagnostics: when a request is rejected with 401/403, the Spring Debugger automatically injects an x-spring-debugger-security-decisions header into the HTTP response, telling you exactly which security rule, which filter, and what permission rejected the request. Extremely useful for troubleshooting authentication issues.
03, Those "Finally Here" Daily Improvements
Some features are small, but used every day, and missing them is awkward.
Home window replaces the welcome screen. Opening IDEA no longer requires waiting for a project to load. You can directly create a standalone file and start typing, choosing a location when saving; or run a terminal command or perform a Git operation. Recent projects and the open/create project entry points remain on the left.
Remote development built in. No longer need JetBrains Gateway. Connect to a remote host via SSH directly from the Home window or the File menu to start a session. The Linux backend also supports Light mode: while the remote IDE is still downloading and starting, you can edit files, use the terminal, search files, and seamlessly switch to full mode once ready, without losing work. SSH connections now use OpenSSH, compatible with your existing authentication methods.
Terminal based on libghostty. In collaboration with the Ghostty team, the built-in terminal now runs on libghostty, offering much better compatibility with modern terminal protocols on which Neovim, tmux, and AI agents depend. Terminal tabs can also be dragged into the editor area to become editor tabs, so long command output and build logs can finally sit side by side with code.
Sound notifications. Build success, test failure, breakpoint hit, agent completion, or needing your input, each has a distinct sound. Useful for multi-monitor or multi-project parallel scenarios. Screen reader users get it enabled by default; others can enable it in settings as needed.
04, Database and Language Support
Cross-database queries are the highlight of the database section. The new Workspace data source is based on an in-memory DuckDB engine, allowing you to reference tables from multiple different database connections in one SQL console and join them directly without exporting data first.
DuckDB first-class support: code completion, dialect highlighting, inspection, and schema introspection all included.
Connect to database from container/Pod with one click: select a running container, automatically extract credentials and establish a connection, no need to manually copy passwords.
Language side: Java 28 Early Access can be downloaded and configured directly in IDE settings; new interfaces like createNamedQuery in Jakarta Persistence 4 / Hibernate 8 get completion and navigation; full Scala 3.10 support, faster sbt 2.x project import; Kotlin's Spring Modulith metadata parsing has arrived.
05, Performance and Quality
Official numbers: more than 1000 bug fixes and 200+ performance fixes. Key areas addressed: UI freezes related to Gradle/Maven sync, Spring Boot and JPA inspections, JSP/JSF indexing, debugger, spell checking; fixed Kotlin K2 hangs under deep type hierarchies, high CPU when opening large files, and memory leaks in closed projects.
Additionally, starting from 2026.3, error and UI freeze reports are automatically sent to JetBrains. Reports are sanitized (file paths, URLs, usernames are removed) and can be turned off in settings.
06, Worth Special Mention: The Power of Two Dots
Although not in the page you provided, the evolution of command completion (..) in the 2026.3 cycle deserves a mention.
Type two dots anywhere in code, and the IDE pops up a context-aware action menu based on cursor position, language, and the selected expression. Log points can be "dropped" directly in, and AI explain/refactor go through the same entry point. JetBrains' positioning is clear: high-frequency operations use shortcuts, low-frequency operations rely on ... This release extends it to properties files, Spring workflows, binary, and decompiled code.
07, Upgrade Advice
People who should upgrade soon: developers using AI coding agents (Air's review loop is worth trying), heavy debuggers of Spring/Hibernate applications, and remote development users.
People who can wait: if your current version is stable and you don't fall into the above scenarios, 2026.3.1 will bring Spring Cache debugging support, and upgrading then is fine.
Have you upgraded? How is Air working for you? What do you think of this official update? You can chat in the comments.
References: