A feature for developing plugins is running or debugging a plugin project from within the Consulo IDE. Selecting the appropriate run configuration for a Maven-based project (or Run menu for a DevKit-based project) will launch a Development Instance of the IDE with the plugin enabled. This page describes how to control some of the settings for the Development Instance.

TIP

Please see also the Consulo documentation on Advanced Configuration for general VM options and properties.

Runtime

Consulo requires JDK 21. The runtime is bundled with all Consulo-based IDEs. Overriding the runtime is not supported.

The Development Instance Sandbox Directory

The Sandbox Home directory contains the settings, caches, logs, and plugins for a Development Instance of the IDE. This information is stored in a different location than for the installed IDE itself.

Sandbox Home Location for Maven-Based Plugin Projects

For Maven-based plugins, the default Sandbox Home location is defined by the Consulo build tools. See Configuring a Maven Plugin Project for more information about specifying a Sandbox Home location. The default Sandbox Home location for Maven-based plugin projects is:

• Windows <Project Dir>\target\consulo-sandbox
• Linux or macOS <Project Dir>/target/consulo-sandbox

Sandbox Home Location for DevKit-Based Plugin Projects

For DevKit-based plugins, the default Sandbox Home location is defined in the Consulo Plugin SDK. See specifying the Sandbox Home for DevKit Projects for more information. The default Sandbox Home directory location for DevKit-based plugin projects is:

• Windows: <User home>\.<product_system_name><product_version>\system\plugins-sandbox\
• Linux: ~/.<product_system_name><product_version>/system/plugins-sandbox/
• macOS ~/Library/Caches/<product_system_name><product_version>/plugins-sandbox/

Development Instance Settings, Caches, Logs, and Plugins

Within the Sandbox Home directory are subdirectories of the Development Instance:

• config contains settings for the IDE instance.
• plugins contains folders for each plugin being run in the IDE instance.
• system/caches or system\caches holds the IDE instance data.
• system/log or system\log contains the idea.log file for the IDE instance.

Each of these Sandbox Home subdirectories can be manually cleared to reset the IDE Development Instance. At the next launch of a Development Instance, the subdirectories will be repopulated with the appropriate information.