--- title: JetBrains Air: Building a System of Products for Agentic... description: JetBrains introduces Air, a unified system of products for agentic software development spanning individual IDE work, team coordination, and organizational... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-building-a-system-of-products-for-agentic-software-development-4kn5dhuhy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: JetBrains Air: Building a System of Products for Agentic Software Development | daily.dev og:description: JetBrains introduces Air, a unified system of products for agentic software development spanning individual IDE work, team coordination, and organizational... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-building-a-system-of-products-for-agentic-software-development-4kn5dhuhy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/4Kn5DhUhy.png og:image:alt: JetBrains Air: Building a System of Products for Agentic Software Development og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # JetBrains Air: Building a System of Products for Agentic Software Development **[JetBrains](https://daily.dev/sources/jetbrains)** · 9 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary JetBrains introduces Air, a unified system of products for agentic software development spanning individual IDE work, team coordination, and organizational governance. Air consolidates prior efforts (JetBrains Central, Central CLI) into three components: Air in JetBrains IDEs for directing and verifying agent work, Air Teams for coordinating agent workflows across teams, and Air Governance (formerly JetBrains Central) for policy, cost, and audit controls. The system is designed to be multi-vendor, supporting external agents and models via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) and its registry, while JetBrains' own coding agent Junie is supported across all surfaces. The company frames the shift as necessary because agent adoption has outpaced organizational infrastructure for governance, cost visibility, and verification, and because the real bottleneck now is verifying and owning AI-generated code rather than producing it. Future plans include mobile/remote experiences and deeper code-intelligence-driven agent workflows. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is JetBrains Air and what products does it include? JetBrains Air is an open system of products for agentic software development consisting of three components: Air in JetBrains IDEs for directing and verifying agent work, Air Teams for coordinating agent workflows across developers, and Air Governance (formerly JetBrains Central) for organizational policy, cost management, and auditability. Junie, JetBrains' coding agent, is supported across all Air surfaces. _Track how JetBrains structures agentic workflows and governance tooling on daily.dev as agentic development evolves._ ### What was JetBrains Central renamed to and what does it do now? JetBrains Central has been renamed Air Governance as part of the JetBrains Air system. It provides organizational policy, visibility, auditability, cost management, and accountability for AI-assisted and agent-driven development, and is designed to extend visibility and cost governance across multiple AI providers and tools, not just JetBrains' own agent. _Developers comparing agent governance tooling can follow platform naming and scope changes on daily.dev._ ### What is the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) used for in JetBrains IDEs? The Agent Client Protocol standardizes the connection between an IDE and an agent's full harness, including its planning, logic, tools, model routing, and observability. Through the ACP Registry, developers can discover and run a growing range of compatible third-party agents while continuing to work inside JetBrains IDEs, supporting a multi-vendor agent ecosystem. _daily.dev helps developers evaluating multi-agent IDE integrations keep up with protocol and tooling changes._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 244 comments across lobsters, hackernews (as of 2026-10-02). **TL;DR:** Long-time JetBrains users express deep skepticism about Air and the company's broader AI pivot, citing declining IDE quality, lack of Claude subscription support, and uncertainty about whether IDEs remain relevant as people shift to agent-driven, terminal-based workflows; JetBrains employees actively engaged in the thread to respond to complaints. **Sentiment:** 10% positive · 25% mixed · 65% skeptical **The case for** - Some find Air's ACP support genuinely useful for plugging in arbitrary local or hosted models/agents. - A few still value the IDE heavily for reviewing and navigating AI-generated code, seeing it as more essential than ever. - People appreciate that JetBrains remains independent, private, and not chasing VC hype. **The pushback** - Inability to authenticate with Claude Pro/Max/Team subscriptions due to Anthropic's ToS is called a dealbreaker by multiple commenters. - Many longtime paying customers report sharply reduced IDE usage as they move to agent/terminal workflows, questioning JetBrains' business viability. - Complaints about IDE performance/resource usage (CPU, RAM) worsening over time alongside AI feature bloat. - Confusion over the proliferation of overlapping JetBrains AI products (Junie, Air, AI Assistant, AI Chat, Central). - Perception that JetBrains was late to the AI shift and is now playing catch-up without a clear moat versus Cursor/Antigravity/Codex. - Frustration with past missteps (new UI rollout, broken local-model support, worktree handling) eroding trust ahead of Air's launch. **By community** - hackernews (skeptical): Extensive, highly engaged thread dominated by longtime paying customers voicing declining IDE usage, performance complaints, and frustration over missing Claude subscription support, partially countered by JetBrains employees defending the product and a minority of users praising the IDE's continued navigation/review value. **Hottest debate:** Whether a deterministic IDE still adds essential value for reviewing and navigating AI-generated code, versus the view that coding work has shifted almost entirely into agent/terminal workflows where the IDE is increasingly irrelevant. **Open questions** - Will JetBrains negotiate an exception with Anthropic to allow Claude Pro/Max/Team subscription authentication in Air? - How will JetBrains differentiate Air from Cursor, Antigravity, Codex, and other agentic competitors given its stated moat is unclear to commenters? - Will JetBrains address long-standing performance/resource usage issues and worktree handling that predate and persist through the Air launch? **Highlights** > I like JetBrains as a company, their pricing for individuals made a lot of sense, you buy the license and you can keep using perpetual license for that version, if you want to buy newer version, you pay slightly less than year before. I want them to succeed, but can't see how they can win in this agentic world, where people are barely opening their IDEs, and living in agents terminal whole day and from time to time opening a PR to get a review > — [throwaw12 on hackernews · 8 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49799747) > Nevermind, Air is DOA: "Authentication with Claude Pro/Max/Team plans is not permitted by Anthropic’s Terms of Service" - Sorry, but unless you can use a subscription then I can't afford to use your tool. I understand the ToS, I wish it was more open, but the reality is that API pricing is way too high and a subscription is all that makes sense currently. > — [joshstrange on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802503) > I'm realizing I am a minority, but my IDE is becoming MORE valuable to me, not less, with LLMs. The volume of code is only increasing. Problems that used to be solved with a few lines (or even removing lines) are now solved with changes across 10 different files. My IDE is invaluable for me when trying to navigate this stuff. I am completely convinced that people reviewing LLM code only via PR diffs are consistently missing massive systemic issues. You *need* to review changes in context of the surrounding code. And doing this without an IDE is just making your life harder for no reason. > — [sunaurus on hackernews · 4 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49800049) > I think this is it. It's hard to tell what the future of IDE development (if any) looks like at the pace AI is going. So everyone is building agentic workflows for a fast moving target. What will happen when the code generated is already 99.9% trustworthy and doesn't need the human-based tooling of an IDE anymore? It feels like we're almost there. I do think JetBrains has an advantage here with their background and reputation. I'm constantly reshaping my tools literally every month, so hopefully they build some type of staple development IDE to fit these type of workflows. I don't know what that is yet. AIR looks interesting, but I can't say this is the "AI IDE moment" yet. > — [alfg on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49855556) > I'm still really soured on JetBrains for how abysmally they handled their UI update and initial AI offerings. I was an Ultimate subscriber for over a decade and canceled last year because JetBrains decided they weren't interested in having people like me as a customer. That being a power user who values a certain level of usability and continuitiy in their tools. Fischer Price's My First IDE is not a tool I can or am willing to use professionally, and I don't see the value of a paid VSCode clone. Not to mention all the lies about the new UI adoption and when faced with backlash, they put the old UI into a plugin that "might" receive updates and support in the future. I actually did try their latest IDE a few months ago to see if their AI integration was worthwhile. There appeared to be no functional way to use a local LLM. You can set up OpenCode as a provider, but any time you click anything it resets your model to one of the free API services, with no discernable way to change the default. I don't have high confidence in Air. So far JetBrains has not shown they know what a good AI integration is like. Frankly I don't think they know who their customers are or what they want. For my part, I'm still using 2024.1 versions on my perpetual fallback license. I had Claude slap together an MCP plugin so now I have my own AI integrated IDE that actually works and functions as a usable tool. All my buttons have text labels instead of hieroglyphs and padding. > — [unrented7977 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49803265) > Haven't you noticed how their nosediving started right around another significant event of the past few years? Most development was done in Russia (disregard tales sold to the West about them supposedly being a Czech company, they were Czech mostly in the name, real work happened elsewhere). Exited Russia in the beginning of 2022, leaving many talented people behind: not everyone wanted or could leave because of families, obligations, personal beliefs. Remembering where most of JB's money was coming from, can't really say they had a choice. > — [solarwinds on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49800810) **Source threads** - [lobsters](https://lobste.rs/s/p1yw6k/jetbrains_air_building_system_products) · 1 points · 0 comments - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49799287) · 74 points · 244 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [New JetBrains platform manages AI coding agents](https://daily.dev/posts/new-jetbrains-platform-manages-ai-coding-agents-q3l3yhywe) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [JetBrains goes all-in on agents with Central](https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-goes-all-in-on-agents-with-central-kel9xgkfn) · LeadDev · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [JetBrains Air lands on Windows](https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-lands-on-windows-djngfqegv) · JetBrains · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#agentic-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/agentic-ai), [#ai-governance](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-governance), [#jetbrains](https://daily.dev/tags/jetbrains) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-building-a-system-of-products-for-agentic-software-development-4kn5dhuhy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"JetBrains Air: Building a System of Products for Agentic Software Development","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-building-a-system-of-products-for-agentic-software-development-4kn5dhuhy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-building-a-system-of-products-for-agentic-software-development-4kn5dhuhy"},"datePublished":"2026-09-22T09:53:15.516Z","dateModified":"2026-10-02T15:07:20.221Z","description":"JetBrains introduces Air, a unified system of products for agentic software development spanning individual IDE work, team coordination, and organizational...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6259d8859fd47675c1512a5beab72127?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6259d8859fd47675c1512a5beab72127?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"JetBrains","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"JetBrains","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/53ecf0c676f34b3896ee109609d91efa","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/jetbrains"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-building-a-system-of-products-for-agentic-software-development-4kn5dhuhy","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"agentic-ai,ai-governance,jetbrains","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"JetBrains","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/jetbrains"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"JetBrains Air: Building a System of Products for Agentic Software Development"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-building-a-system-of-products-for-agentic-software-development-4kn5dhuhy#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is JetBrains Air and what products does it include?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"JetBrains Air is an open system of products for agentic software development consisting of three components: Air in JetBrains IDEs for directing and verifying agent work, Air Teams for coordinating agent workflows across developers, and Air Governance (formerly JetBrains Central) for organizational policy, cost management, and auditability. 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