Essential IntelliJ IDEA Plugins and Settings to Boost Development Efficiency

After installing IntelliJ IDEA, the following initialization steps can increase development efficiency tenfold.

1. Install Plugins

1. Codota – AI‑powered code completion

Typing a few letters suggests a full statement and shows usage frequency, because it learns from your project code and preferences.

2. Key Promoter X – Shortcut hints

A pop‑up in the lower‑right corner reminds you of keyboard shortcuts, helping you master them quickly.

3. CodeGlance – Code minimap

Displays a thumbnail view of the entire file, making navigation easier when the code base is large.

4. Lombok – Reduce boilerplate

Automatically generates getters, setters, constructors, toString, hashCode, etc., so you no longer need to write them manually.

5. Alibaba Java Coding Guidelines – Code style inspection

Checks code against Alibaba’s Java standards, highlights issues with colors, and shows tooltips for corrections.

6. CamelCase – Convert between camelCase and snake_case

Use Shift + Alt + U to toggle naming styles, which is handy for bulk renaming.

7. MybatisX – Efficient MyBatis support

Provides advanced features for working with MyBatis mapper files.

8. SonarLint – Real‑time code quality analysis

Warns against using System.out for logging, suggests proper logger usage, and enforces other quality rules.

9. Save Actions – Automatic code formatting

Optimizes imports, adds final to unchanged variables, inserts this where appropriate, and enforces consistent formatting.

10. CheckStyle – Code style checking

Functions similarly to the Alibaba plugin, enforcing style conventions.

11. Grep Console – Custom console output formatting

Allows you to define colors and patterns for console logs.

12. MetricsReloaded – Code complexity analysis

Provides metrics such as cyclomatic complexity to identify problematic code.

13. Statistic – Code statistics

Shows various statistics about the code base.

14. Translation – Inline translation

Translates selected text directly within the IDE.

15. Rainbow Brackets – Colorful bracket matching

Displays matching brackets in the same color, improving readability.

2. Create Custom Live Templates

Define shortcuts (e.g., typing apr ) that expand into full code snippets such as @Autowired , allowing rapid insertion of frequently used patterns.

3. Adjust Global Settings for Better Efficiency

1. Optimize import settings

Configure automatic import organization.

2. Disable single‑line tab display

Show multiple lines per tab for easier file navigation.

3. Move double‑slash comments to the line start

Standardizes comment placement.

4. Enable copy‑entire‑line

Copy the whole line even if only part of it is selected.

5. Disable case‑sensitive matching

Allows lower‑case input to suggest correctly cased symbols (e.g., typing s suggests String ).

6. Improve version‑control directory color cues

Enhances visual distinction of VCS folders.

7. Auto‑insert author and timestamp when creating files

Adds file headers automatically.

8. Show line numbers and method separators

Improves code navigation.

What other IntelliJ IDEA efficiency tricks or plugins do you know?