Releases

What’s fixed in IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2

Welcome to an overview of the most important fixes and usability improvements in IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2.

This release brings more than 1,300 bug fixes and usability improvements, and it addresses 140 freezes and other performance issues identified through internal diagnostics and user reports. Below is a recap of the most impactful updates.

Performance

Responsiveness remains a top priority. IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2 includes fixes for more than 140 freezes and other performance issues.

When editing Markdown files, the IDE is now much more responsive, improving the experience of writing specifications for agents

Projects opened natively in WSL or Docker environments should stall less often.

Editor file saves are now asynchronous. Writing a file to disk no longer blocks the UI thread, reducing the likelihood of freezes during save operations. If you develop IDE plugins, please refer to this dedicated blog post for migration guidance.

The custom file chooser now loads directories using asynchronous I/O and lazily expandable nodes, reducing UI freezes and making navigation more responsive in large or remote directory structures. The custom file chooser is primarily used in WSL, Dev Containers, and remote development environments, but you can also use it more broadly by disabling the Use native file chooser dialog option in Advanced Settings on Windows or macOS.

The loading of Spring configuration metadata is also faster and more stable. We resolved issues that could cause excessive memory consumption, endless metadata collection loops, and exceptions during Spring Boot configuration analysis.

Spring

To ensure readability and help you better understand code written by others, whether humans or agents, we are doubling down on fixes related to code resolution, navigation, and usage detection.

Note that some of these improvements are planned for the IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2.1 update.

Spring Boot configuration properties

IntelliJ IDEA now handles more configuration patterns correctly in application.properties files, YAML files, annotations, test configurations, Kotlin classes, Java records, nested objects, maps, lists, and custom configuration classes. Resolution, highlighting, completion, navigation, and @ConfigurationProperties mapping have all been improved.

See YouTrack issue IDEA-370087 for the full list of fixes.

Spring Security 2026.2.1

IntelliJ IDEA recognizes more ways to define request matchers, including paths supplied as arrays, the requestMatchers(RequestMatcher...) overload, and matchers created with PathPatternRequestMatcher.pathPattern(...). For example, the IDE will recognize and highlight new RegexRequestMatcher(pattern, method) as a regular expression. SpEL expressions in @PreAuthorize and other security annotations will correctly understand all usages of this.

New inspections will help identify ordering problems in a SecurityFilterChain, warning you, for example, when requestMatchers() are placed after anyRequest().

See YouTrack issue IDEA-391028 for the complete list of improvements.

Spring Cache 2026.2.1

Support for Spring Cache annotations, including @Cacheable, @CachePut, @CacheEvict, and @Caching, is becoming more accurate, with better SpEL expression validation and proper usage detection for methods referenced only through a #root.target expression

Additionally, inspections for conflicting @Cacheable and @CachePut, for # prefixes missing from root or result, and others no longer produce false positives.

See YouTrack issue IDEA-390707 for the full list of fixes.

Spring Events 2026.2.1

Improvements to the Spring Events support provide more reliable navigation between event publishers and listeners, including ApplicationListener implementations that listen for a base event type, events published through generic methods, custom generic events implementing ResolvableTypeProvider, and publishEvent calls made through method references

New inspections warn you when an @EventListener method listens for an early Spring Boot lifecycle and detect potentially incorrect combinations of @TransactionalEventListener and @Transactional that can otherwise fail only at runtime.

See YouTrack issue IDEA-390826 for the full list of improvements.

Thymeleaf

IntelliJ IDEA’s Thymeleaf support is now more reliable across expressions, tags, attributes, JavaScript inlining, completion, and property resolution. The IDE recognizes more expression forms, including inline output, bracket-based map access, nested selections, and T() references, while eliminating false warnings for common Thymeleaf and Layout dialect constructs. JavaScript expressions inside <script th:inline="javascript"> are handled correctly, numeric property keys now resolve as expected, and the Empty tag inspection can be disabled for Thymeleaf templates.

See YouTrack issue IDEA-370051 for the complete list of updates.

Kotlin

Server-side

We’re continuing to close the gaps between the Java and Kotlin support in Spring-based server-side projects.

IntelliJ IDEA can now configure Kotlin support for Lombok and other annotation processors through kapt automatically, reducing the amount of manual project setup required. These changes should make mixed Java and Kotlin projects more predictable.

Kotlin completion in Java code

IntelliJ IDEA’s Java code completion now better understands Kotlin top-level functions and companion object members. More complete suggestions make cross-language calls easier to write without requiring knowledge of the generated JVM structure.

Removal of K1

With K2 adoption now above 99% across IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio, we have removed the remaining K1-mode options and relevant code from the product.

Editor and navigation

The Markdown integration now supports standard footnotes, allowing the proper use of [^label] syntax. This resolves a long-standing feature request and makes it easier to work with technical documentation, articles, and other reference-heavy content directly in the IDE.

The IDE now knows how to keep your bookmarks when you switch Git branches. If you want to have your bookmarks preserved, disable the Enable bookmark context restoration on branch switching option in Settings | Advanced Settings.

When searching for classes, files, or symbols in Search Everywhere, IntelliJ IDEA now remembers the scope you selected, such as Project Files, Project and Libraries, or a custom scope. The same selection is restored automatically the next time you start a search.

Double-press shortcuts, such as Shift+Shift for Search Everywhere and Ctrl+Ctrl for Run Anything, are now fully customizable in Settings | Keymap.

User interface

Islands theme color coding

Colors assigned to scopes, such as test files or non-project files, remain visible when the tab is active, making it easier to identify the type of file you are currently editing at a glance.

Bundled plugins

Deprecation of the Machine Learning Code Completion (Ranking) plugin

The Machine Learning Code Completion plugin, which improved ranking, is being deprecated and will no longer be bundled with IntelliJ IDEA.

As AI completion, next edit suggestions, and coding agents have become the main forms of intelligent development assistance, the benefits of ML-based completion ranking have declined significantly.

The plugin remains available from JetBrains Marketplace, so you can install it separately and continue using it where needed.

Unbundling of the Task Management and Time Tracking plugins

The Task Management and Time Tracking plugins have also been removed from the default IntelliJ IDEA distribution.

Both plugins saw relatively low usage, and unbundling them helps keep the standard installation leaner. Their functionality has not changed, and both plugins can still be installed directly from JetBrains Marketplace.

More relevant plugin search results

Plugins will be easier to find, as searching for them in Settings | Plugins now produces better-ranked results.

Previously, all plugins containing the search text in either their name or description could appear in an arbitrary order, but now name matches are prioritized.

Conclusion

Let us know which fixes make the biggest difference in your workflow and where you still encounter friction. Your reports, feedback, and sample projects help us understand which issues have the greatest impact and what we should prioritize next.

Try IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2 and share your favorite improvements with us on X, Bluesky, or LinkedIn.

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