JetBrains

JetBrains IDEs attach over SSH through the JetBrains Toolbox App. It connects to the running container and runs the IDE backend there - it does not rebuild the container.

Note

JetBrains now does remote development from the Toolbox App (it hosts what used to be the standalone Gateway / “Remote Development”; the standalone Gateway app connects to Linux hosts only and is being retired). Use the Toolbox route below - and do not use JetBrains’ own Dev Containers feature (opening devcontainer.json directly), which rebuilds the container and re-pulls features, a heavier path that can fail.

Note

acme is just a sample workbench name - it’s whatever you passed to monoceros init. Substitute your own throughout.

Prerequisites: Docker is running, the workbench is applied and up (monoceros apply acme), the JetBrains Toolbox App is installed, and you have a licensed JetBrains IDE for the backend (IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, WebStorm, PyCharm Professional, GoLand, …). Community editions can’t run a remote backend; WebStorm and Rider are free for non-commercial use.

Connect

1. In the JetBrains Toolbox App, open the environment dropdown at the top (it reads Local) (1) and choose SSH (2).

   

2. Add the connection. Either type node@monoceros-acme under New SSH Connection and click Create (1), or find node@monoceros-acme in the discovered connections below - Toolbox reads them from your ~/.ssh/config, which monoceros apply wrote for you - and click Import (2).

   

3. The connection node@monoceros-acme now appears with a green dot (reachable). Click Install a tool (1) to put a JetBrains IDE on it.

   

4. Pick the IDE to run in the container: one that’s already installed (e.g. WebStorm) (1), or install one from Available Tools (2).

   

   If that IDE’s backend isn’t on the container yet, Toolbox downloads it into the container at this point, before the IDE opens - on a first connect that can take a few minutes.

5. The IDE launches, connected to the container. Open your project: New Project (1) to start fresh, or Open to pick your repo under /workspaces/acme/projects/....

   

The thin client runs locally against that backend; later connects reuse it, so the download only happens once (see below).

Tip

monoceros open doesn’t drive JetBrains - connect through the Toolbox App as above. The SSH host monoceros apply set up is monoceros-acme; you can sanity-check it from a terminal with ssh monoceros-acme.

Windows / WSL

Works the same. monoceros apply runs in WSL but also writes the Windows ~/.ssh/config entry and key, so the Toolbox App on Windows discovers node@monoceros-acme in the import list. You need Docker Desktop (provides docker.exe) and the Windows OpenSSH client (bundled since Windows 10).

The backend is heavy, but shared

JetBrains remote development is large by design: a thin client locally plus a full IDE backend (multiple GB) inside the container. Monoceros softens this:

• The backend distribution is stored in one machine-wide Docker volume, shared by all your containers - so it downloads once, not per container.
• Per-project state (indexes, settings, recent projects) stays per-container and survives a monoceros apply rebuild.

monoceros remove acme clears the per-container state but leaves the shared backend volume in place (other containers use it). To reclaim that disk once you no longer run any JetBrains container:

docker volume rm monoceros-jetbrains-dist

Tip

Prefer a lighter setup? VS Code or VS Codium use a small in-container server instead of a full IDE backend. See the overview.

Trouble?

See the IDE FAQ.