IntelliJ - Better IDE Support
- Dominant language
- Groovy
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Description
### Issue description
Placeholder ticket to discuss issues with current IntelliJ integration and how we can help provide better IDE support. Please consider voting for these issues on JetBrain's tracker to help us get better IDE support.
## Known IntelliJ Bugs
### BLOCKER
1. IDE Lockups for Grails-core if Grails plugin enabled [IDEA-366647](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-366647)
### High Priority
1. Attach Sources Issues - 'Attach Roots' dialog after downloading library sources in a Gradle-based project - [IDEA-363773](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-363773)
2. Tag Libs - cannot `go to declaration` unless sources are downloaded - [IDEA-364650](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-364650)
3. Ambiguous Method Calls [IDEA-354989](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-354989) - `render` is reported as an ambiguous method call in IntelliJ because `render(obj)` and `render(Map map)` exist. IntelliJ does not complain about this if these methods types are added in your project, but when referencing the grails `render()` method, it complains. This issue has popped up several times: [~~IDEA-216095~~](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-216095/Ambiguous-method-call-with-groovy), [~~IDEA-218748~~](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-218748/Ambiguous-method-call-with-Groovy-Grails)
4. ✅ Completed - Update IntelliJ Grails plugin for Apache Changes: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-372363/Update-Grails-Plugin-to-support-Apache-Grails-changes & https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-373638/Support-recognization-of-Grails-7-when-importing-from-Gradle, resolved in 2025.2 EAP+ with plugin version 252.19874.12+
### Lower Priority
1. Tag Libs - attribute `go to` support - [IDEA-199021](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-199021)
2. Better decompile support for java 17 & groovy - [IDEA-365803](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-365803/Better-Decompile-Support-for-Groovy-Classes-that-had-AST-Transformations)
## Groovy Specific Issues (no specific priority)
1. Alignment for Map Constructors [IDEA-347599](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-347599)
2. static property exceeds access rights [IDEA-331870](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-331870)
3. AST Browser [IDEA-178233](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-178233)
4. Parenthesis Inspection [IDEA-260579](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-260579)
## Work Around Available
1. Intellij Does not resolve gradle API classes - wrong gradle distribution selected (use `all` instead of `bin` if using gradle via wrapper OR use a local gradle distribution with the sources)
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reviewing the linked JetBrains issues and the listed IntelliJ/Grails integration problems, including source attachment, navigation, method resolution, and Java 17 decompilation. This ticket is a discussion placeholder, so it does not identify a Grails file, test, entry point, or self-contained completion criterion; a newcomer would need a narrower scope first.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- groovy, java
- Domain
- developer-experience, tooling
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100