JetBrains is mothballing its Fleet IDE service — here’s what developers need to know

JetBrains has announced it will discontinue its Fleet IDE (integrated development environment), shifting strategic emphasis back to its core IntelliJ platform.

In a blog update published last week, the company explained that maintaining two broad-spectrum IDE offerings “scattered our attention” and that an internal evaluation led directly to this outcome.

As of 22 December, Fleet will no longer be accessible for new downloads. JetBrains confirmed it is now developing a fresh solution “centered on agentic development”.

“Fleet failed to establish itself as an independent, viable product. We were unable to position it as a full replacement for IntelliJ IDEA, nor could we refine it into a distinct, well-defined category,” the firm stated.

“We unexpectedly ended up managing two IDE families targeting nearly identical user groups and serving overlapping functions. Users repeatedly asked which tool they should adopt—and the response was always complex and unsatisfying. Two closely aligned products generated friction and sparked uncertainty around responsibility and future commitment.”

Importantly, no further updates or enhancements will be issued for Fleet. While existing users may continue running the IDE, certain functionalities dependent on backend infrastructure—like its AI-powered assistant—“could gradually cease functioning”.

JetBrains insists Fleet wasn’t a failure

JetBrains emphasized that retiring Fleet does not equate to labeling it a failure. Originally introduced in 2021, Fleet was conceived as a nimble, polyglot IDE, later evolving into both a code editor and intelligent coding companion.

In fact, the company revealed it “deeply explored” the possibility of elevating Fleet to co-flagship status alongside its IntelliJ-based suite.

Today, numerous Fleet-derived components are embedded across JetBrains’ IDE lineup, and several interface and interaction patterns pioneered during Fleet’s development have since been integrated into other JetBrains tools.

Nonetheless, sustaining two overlapping platforms ultimately proved counterproductive—and “sowed confusion” among users.

“Feedback remained consistent: If you’re already using IntelliJ IDEA, Rider, WebStorm, PyCharm, or another JetBrains IDE, switching to Fleet demanded compelling justification—and Fleet simply didn’t deliver sufficient added value to warrant abandoning tools you already rely on and trust.”

JetBrains’ pivot to agentic development

Insights gathered from the Fleet initiative are now shaping a targeted new direction for the company.

JetBrains is crafting a dedicated “agentic development environment”, built upon the foundational work done with Fleet. This upcoming offering will launch under a new brand name and aims to simplify and accelerate developer workflows centered around AI agents.

According to JetBrains, experimenting with AI capabilities inside Fleet illuminated “the emergence of a novel development paradigm”, triggering a broader reassessment of how IDEs should adapt to changing developer practices.

“Developers began assigning substantial responsibilities to agents—such as refreshing test suites, tidying source code, restructuring modules, navigating unknown codebases, and even prototyping new features,” the company elaborated.

“These operations execute asynchronously and deliver complete, ready-to-apply patches. The developer doesn’t author the code directly. Instead, they direct the agent and critically assess its output. This represents a radical departure from traditional IDE usage—where responsiveness, real-time control, and a single, consistent local environment form the bedrock.”

In contrast, agentic workflows hinge on “precise task specification, contextual aggregation, repeated asynchronous executions, sandboxed processing, and review-before-merge practices”.

Given these divergent requirements, forcing them into one unified tool yielded an inconsistent and perplexing experience.

“The Fleet team opted to step away from competing with conventional IDEs and editors—and instead concentrate entirely on building a purpose-built solution for agentic development.”

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