Files can now be opened without a project. A file dropped on the Welcome screen, picked with File › Open File…, or passed on the command line or to a second instance opens in a lightweight window: editor tabs only, with no project tree, indexing, language servers, VCS or project tool windows. Syntax highlighting, find, save, undo and Local History still work. More files opened later join the same window as new tabs. Open as Project in the status bar opens the file's directory as a full project, following the open-project policy, and reopens the file there. Backend: a light session reuses Project with an unindexed index, no LSP or VCS, and a flat watch on each opened file's directory. It is never reused as a project for the same root. Previously a file passed at launch opened its parent directory as a project.
The IDE you know, rebuilt in Rust.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/234dd54c-1255-4b3a-b35c-533d78d737c0
OpenIDEA brings the IntelliJ IDEA way of working — its keymap, its tool windows, its search-everything habits — to a native app with a Rust core.
Editor, code insight, debugger, Git, terminal, database and HTTP clients, for 60+ languages. Builds for macOS, Windows and Linux.
Benchmark
Opening freqtrade (Python, ~770 files) with warm caches, median of 5 runs:
| OpenIDEA | IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Window with the project | 0.9 s | 3.1 s |
| Ready (CPU settled) | 1.1 s | 13.2 s |
| Memory (USS, all processes) | 169 MB | 2011 MB |
| CPU time until ready | 2.4 s | 47.9 s |
| Idle CPU | 4 % of a core | 7 % of a core |
| Quit | 0.3 s | 5.9 s |
A release build of OpenIDEA from main and IDEA with default settings and plugins, on
Windows 11, 32-core AMD, 62 GB RAM.
IDEA analyses Python more deeply, so "ready" doesn't mean the same work on
both sides. Both are measured from the outside, the same way: see
perf/compare to run it on your machine and projects.
Build
pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev
Rust 1.96, Node 22, pnpm and the Tauri prerequisites.
License
Apache 2.0. Bundled third-party assets are listed in THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md.
Not affiliated with JetBrains. IntelliJ IDEA is a trademark of JetBrains s.r.o.