Essential IntelliJ IDEA Plugins and Settings to Boost Productivity

After installing IntelliJ IDEA, the article recommends a series of plugins and settings to increase development efficiency tenfold.

Plugins

1. Codota : Provides AI‑driven code completion that suggests full statements based on the first letters typed and shows usage frequency.

2. Key Promoter X : Displays shortcut hints in the bottom‑right corner to help users learn key bindings quickly.

3. CodeGlance : Shows a miniature overview of the code, making navigation easier when files are large.

4. Lombok : Generates boilerplate methods (getters, setters, constructors, toString, hashCode) automatically, reducing manual coding.

5. Alibaba Java Coding Guidelines : Checks code against Alibaba’s Java standards, highlights issues with colored annotations, and provides inline suggestions.

6. CamelCase : Enables quick conversion between camelCase and snake_case using Shift+Alt+U .

7. MybatisX : Enhances MyBatis development with efficient navigation and code assistance.

8. SonarLint : Performs real‑time code quality analysis, recommending logger usage over System.out and other best‑practice improvements.

9. Save Actions : Automatically formats code, adds missing final modifiers, and inserts this where appropriate.

10. CheckStyle : Similar to Alibaba guidelines, it enforces coding style rules.

11. Grep Console : Customizes console output appearance for better readability.

12. MetricsReloaded : Analyzes code complexity metrics.

13. Statistic : Provides code statistics.

14. Translation : Offers in‑IDE translation capabilities.

15. Rainbow Brackets : Colors matching brackets identically, improving visual parsing.

Live Template Customization

Creates custom live templates (e.g., typing apr expands to Autowired ) to speed up repetitive coding patterns.

Global Configuration Tweaks

1. Optimizes import settings to streamline dependency management.

2. Disables single‑line tab display for multi‑line file visibility.

3. Adjusts comment placement to appear directly above code.

4. Enables copying entire lines without selection.

5. Turns off case‑sensitive matching in search to allow lower‑case queries.

6. Improves version‑control directory color coding.

7. Auto‑generates author and timestamp headers when creating new files.

8. Shows line numbers and method separators for better navigation.

The article concludes by inviting readers to share additional IntelliJ IDEA efficiency tips in the comments.