I would still be using Intellij if it had better LLM integration
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I don't understand why you don't just add an LLM chat window to the IDE in which I can converse with any LLM to do things to the code. I prefer the UI and the full IDE of Intellij much more than for example Cursor, but I realize I'm only opening Intellij now to browse code; I do all edits elsewhere. I feel it's a missed opportunity. I'm just writing this because I'm sad about it because I WANT to keep using the IDEs, but the AI integration is just not the same.
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JetBrains IDEs currently offer an AI Assistant tool window where you can chat with various LLMs and agents, including Junie, Claude, Codex, and Gemini. You also have the flexibility to connect your own API keys (BYOK) or locally hosted models (e.g., via Ollama or LM Studio) for use in the AI chat.
AI Assistant Documentation: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/ai-assistant/about-ai-assistant.html
The IDE has always been the place where developers understand, navigate, and manage complex codebases, so having a powerful LLM conversation layer directly inside that environment feels like a natural evolution. The challenge is not just adding a chat window, but deeply integrating AI with project context, indexing, refactoring tools, debugging, and developer workflows.
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