JetBrains introduces Junie, a new AI coding assistant for its IDEs.

JetBrains, the company behind coding tools like IntelliJ IDE for Java and Kotlin, introduced Junie, a new AI-based coding assistant, on Thursday. According to the company, this assistant will be capable of managing routine development tasks for creating new applications and understanding the context of existing projects that are to be enhanced with new functionalities.

Using the well-known SWE-Bench Verified benchmark, which covers 500 common development tasks, Junie can solve 53.6% of them in a single run. While this figure used to be a standout score, currently, higher-performing models exceed 60%, with "Programmer O1 crosscheck5" from Weights & Biases leading at 64.6%. The company considers Junie's score to be "promising." Despite its lower score, JetBrains' service could have an advantage due to its close integration with the rest of JetBrains' IDEs.

JetBrains emphasizes that while Junie assists developers in their tasks, control always rests with the human, even when delegating tasks to the assistant. According to the company, "AI-generated code can be just as flawed as that written by a developer." Ultimately, Junie is expected to not only accelerate the development process but also set a new standard in code quality. Thanks to the combination of the potential of JetBrains IDEs with language models, Junie will be able to generate code, perform inspections, write tests, and verify their correct functioning.

For now, access to this service is limited to an early access program that requires being on a waiting list. Additionally, Junie is only compatible with Linux and Mac and is currently available in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate and PyCharm Professional, with WebStorm expected to follow in the near future.