Top IntelliJ IDEA Plugins for Java Developers

IntelliJ IDEA is the preferred IDE for Java development, and installing the right plugins can significantly boost coding efficiency and reduce the monotony of daily work. Below is a collection of useful plugins that can be installed directly from the IDEA plugin marketplace.

1. Key promoter X

When you use the mouse on IDE buttons, Key promoter X displays the corresponding keyboard shortcut.

This plugin helps developers transitioning from Eclipse to IDEA learn the new shortcuts, offering a quick way to replace mouse actions with keyboard commands and even suggests creating shortcuts for actions that lack them.

2. String Manipulation

Case switching, sorting, filtering, incrementing, column aligning, grepping, escaping, etc.

String Manipulation provides powerful operations for handling strings, such as converting variable names to camel case, making constants uppercase, encoding/decoding, and more. After selecting text, press Alt + M to open the function list and execute actions without using the mouse.

3. Background Image Plus

Set the editor background to random images from a folder.

This plugin replaces the plain IDE background with random images, allowing customization of opacity and change intervals, making the coding environment more visually appealing.

4. CodeGlance

After installation, a miniature map appears on the right side of the editor for easy code navigation.

When working with large codebases, the mini‑map lets you quickly locate sections without scrolling, and it also includes a magnifier for warnings.

5. Request mapper

Quick navigation to URL mapping declarations.

Press Shift + Ctrl + \ to jump to the corresponding mapping address, making it easy to find and navigate request paths in a project.

6. Translation

A translation plugin.

Supports multiple translation engines (Google, Youdao, Baidu) and features such as multi‑language translation, file translation, text‑to‑speech, automatic word selection, and tokenization.

7. Alibaba Java Coding Guidelines

Alibaba Java coding guide plugin.

The plugin scans code against the Alibaba Java Development Manual, categorizing violations as Blocker, Critical, or Major, and offers real‑time inspection and batch auto‑fix for legacy code.

8. Rainbow Brackets

Color‑coded matching brackets.

When dealing with complex code with many brackets, Rainbow Brackets highlights matching pairs with the same color and provides region highlighting for easier debugging.

9. Indent Rainbow

Colors indentation levels with alternating colors.

Allows selection of color palettes for different themes and lets users customize colors to improve code structure visibility.

10. Grep Console

Change log message colors for better readability.

Enables custom coloring of console output (e.g., WARN, INFO, ERROR) to make log inspection more comfortable.

11. Material Theme UI

Applies Material Design UI to the IDE.

Provides a set of beautiful color schemes, Material Design icons, and extensive UI customization options, making the IDE aesthetically pleasing for users who value visual design.

12. leetcode editor

Supports leetcode.com and leetcode-cn.com for testing and submitting problems.

After linking your LeetCode account, you can write, test, and submit solutions directly from the IDE, with problem categorization and difficulty highlighting for an efficient practice workflow.