Agent Skills in IntelliJ IDEA

JetBrains has introduced Agent Skills in IntelliJ IDEA, enabling AI agents to gain additional capabilities and knowledge for agentic development. The Skills Manager allows developers to install skills globally, per project, or per agent, and the Skill Repository provides access to skills verified by JetBrains for security vulnerabilities. Teams can also add their own repositories for internally reviewed skills, enhancing control over which skills developers use.

IntelliJ IDEA IntelliJ IDEA – the Leading IDE for Professional Development in Java and Kotlin AI /idea/category/ai/ AI Assistant /idea/category/ai-assistant/ Agent Skills in IntelliJ IDEA Agent Skills have become a key building block of the Agent Harness for AI-driven agentic development. They give AI agents additional capabilities and knowledge, enabling them to complete tasks in a way that aligns with your preferences. If you are new to Agent Skills, I recommend reading AI-Assisted Java Application Development with Agent Skills https://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2026/03/ai-assisted-java-application-development-with-agent-skills/ first. IntelliJ IDEA and other JetBrains IDEs include AI Assistant, which helps developers with AI agentic development. AI Assistant provides an elegant and secure way to use and manage Agent Skills. If you missed the announcement, see Introducing the Skill Manager and Skill Repository https://blog.jetbrains.com/ai/2026/04/skill-manager-and-skill-repository/ . In this article, we will explore: - How to install Agent Skills https://www.jetbrains.com/help/ai-assistant/agent-skills.html skills-sources via the Skills Manager. - Managing skills with the Skill Repository. - Installing skills globally, per project, or per agent. - Adding your own Skill Repository. Skills Manager AI Assistant supports a wide range of AI agents through ACP https://www.jetbrains.com/help/ai-assistant/acp.html Agent Client Protocol . The Skills Manager in AI Assistant lets you view the list of available skills and install them. If you have already installed Agent Skills globally, the Skills Manager detects them and helps you install them as IntelliJ IDEA agent skills. You can install a skill globally, at the project level, or per agent. Skill Repositories The Skill Repository lets you manage a list of locations where your verified skills are stored. By default, JetBrains provides a Skill Repository hosted at https://github.com/JetBrains/skills https://github.com/JetBrains/skills . These skills are verified by JetBrains for security vulnerabilities. It is essential to check for security issues before using agent skills downloaded from the internet. A better approach is to maintain an organization-wide Skill Repository, verified by your team, and add it to the Skill Repository list. Agent Skills in action Based on the prompt description, the AI agent automatically detects and uses relevant agent skills. For example, I installed spring-boot-skill https://github.com/sivaprasadreddy/sivalabs-agent-skills , and when I asked the AI agent to write tests for Spring Boot REST API endpoints, it used the spring-boot-skill . You can also explicitly invoke an agent skill using $skill-name prompt with Codex or /skill-name prompt with Claude. Summary AI Assistant’s Skills Manager makes agent skills part of your regular IDE workflow. You can discover, install, and manage skills without leaving IntelliJ IDEA, then make them available globally, for a specific project, or only to a particular AI agent. The AI agent can automatically select a relevant skill from your prompt, while explicit invocation gives you control when you need it. Just as importantly, the Skill Repository provides access to skills verified by JetBrains for security vulnerabilities. Teams can also add their own repositories containing internally reviewed skills. This makes it easier to benefit from reusable agent capabilities while maintaining control over which skills developers use in their projects. Subscribe to IntelliJ IDEA Blog updates