JetBrains IDEs & Terminal Setup

JetBrains Plugin

Works in IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, Rider, and other JetBrains IDEs.

Install: JetBrains Marketplace → “Claude Code [Beta]” → restart IDE. The plugin requires the Claude Code CLI installed separately.

What you get over plain terminal:

• Interactive diff viewing in the IDE’s diff viewer
• Selection context sharing — highlighted code is automatically visible to Claude
• Current file/tab awareness
• Diagnostics (errors/warnings) shared from the IDE

Open: Cmd+/ (macOS) / Alt+/ (Win/Linux), or run claude in the IDE’s terminal — it auto-detects the IDE and connects.

If the connection doesn’t establish: run /ide inside the session to connect manually, keep IDE and CLI versions current, and on Remote Development make sure the plugin is installed on the host.

Terminal Configuration

Small terminal tweaks that noticeably improve daily use:

Goal	How
Newlines without submitting	/terminal-setup installs Shift+Enter keybindings (iTerm2/VS Code); or use \ + Enter anywhere
Notification when Claude finishes / needs input	Enable terminal bell: claude config set --global preferredNotifChannel terminal_bell (macOS: also enable Terminal notification settings)
Large pastes get truncated	iTerm2/Kitty/Ghostty handle large pastes best; avoid pasting multi-thousand-line files — give paths instead
Broken rendering after resize	Ctrl+L redraws
Vim-style editing	/vim or "editorMode": "vim" in settings
See the full transcript	Ctrl+O toggles verbose transcript view

Recommended terminals

Any modern terminal works. iTerm2 (macOS), Windows Terminal, WezTerm, Kitty, Ghostty, and Alacritty all render Claude Code well; tmux users get extra powers with agent-team split panes (32-agent-teams.md).

Real Case: JetBrains Refactor Loop

1. In PyCharm, select the legacy function → Cmd+/ (selection auto-shared)
2. "refactor this to a dataclass-based approach, update all call sites"
3. Review each change in the IDE diff viewer, accept/reject per file
4. IDE diagnostics update live — "fix the two remaining type errors it introduced"

🧠 Quick Recall

• Trick: “Same brain, IDE hands — Cmd+/ (Mac) / Alt+/ (Win).”

👨‍🏫 Teach It

• Show: highlight code in PyCharm and ask about it — selection context just works.
• They’ll trip on: the plugin needs the CLI installed separately.

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Learning path: ⬅ 45-capstone-projects.md · Index · ➡ 47-gitlab-cicd.md