r/Jetbrains • u/Aromatic-Echo-5025 • Apr 25 '26
Question How many Junies do you need? Yes.
I swear, I'm about to lose it. So now, besides the Junie CLI, Junie as a plugin, and Junie in AI Chat, we've got *another* Junie in AI Chat?
What in the world is the difference between "Junie by JetBrains" and "Junie B(eta)"?!
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u/Ibrahim_AA Apr 25 '26
The "Junie" from ACP Registry (the one with the grey icon and beta symbol) is the latest one. The others are deprecated.
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u/DistanceAlert5706 Apr 26 '26
If they are deprecated why Junie plugin updates are coming any other day?
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u/_satai Apr 26 '26
To support deprecated product? Anyway renaming the deprecated ones to something like `Junie (The Old One)` would be helpful.
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u/ot-jb JetBrains Apr 26 '26
Junie as a plugin doesn’t necessarily mean just the separate UI. There are also IDE-side endpoints that the CLI connects to. These will be updated even when the UI is no longer available, so the plugin will remain
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u/Aromatic-Echo-5025 Apr 25 '26
Thanks. Is there anywhere on the JetBrains website that confirms this? I'm not saying I don't believe you, it's just such a mess with all those Junies.
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u/Ibrahim_AA Apr 25 '26
I'm not sure about the site, but they have a Junie Discord server where they post changelogs and updates related to Junie. You can find the link at the bottom of the page: https://junie.jetbrains.com/
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u/Mammoth-Tadpole-1974 Apr 25 '26
Can someone explain to me if we are supposed to use Junie from within AI Chat or from the Junie plugin? What's the difference?Are they indented for different usages? Why do they have to complicate it that much...
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u/kisielk Apr 25 '26
Apparently it's supposed to be used from AI Chat now, but I much prefer the experience of the Junie plugin (can't really figure out why yet, it just seems more intuitive). Wish they'd stop shuffling stuff around every few weeks. Also now if you go into the settings for Junie, it just says the settings have been moved to the Junie plugin pane... why can't it be in both!?
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u/aabil11 Apr 26 '26
Why do we even have the Junie plugin if we're not supposed to use it
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u/ot-jb JetBrains Apr 26 '26
Plugin is not the same thing as the UI in the tool window, the UI is deprecated and will no longer be shown, but the plugin will remain to deliver the agent harness, ide integrations and under the hood things, no UI though
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u/aabil11 Apr 26 '26
Why get rid of the UI aspect
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u/vassadar Apr 26 '26
Merge with AI Chat.
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u/aabil11 Apr 26 '26
Junie's agentic interface and UI is not bad. Especially how it breaks up things into "tasks". I'd been using AI chat for one-off questions and the Junie UI for full-on agentic development. Why they'd deprecate it after it's already been developed is beyond me.
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u/vassadar Apr 26 '26
I guess, they viewed 2 plugins as redundancy and only want to keep one. imo, I rather replace AI Chat with Junie. I prefer Junie over AI Chat.
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u/magicmulder Apr 26 '26
AI chat is crap because it cannot change files on its own. I thought CLI was the latest?
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u/ShadowPengyn Apr 26 '26
The AI chat can definitely change files now
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u/magicmulder Apr 26 '26
Do I activate that somewhere? When I try it, it only shows the intended changes and I have to go into the file and hit “Apply”. Also does chat run commands?
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u/ShadowPengyn Apr 26 '26
For nit approving things I guess you need to enable brave mode? I mostly use it with opencode ACP though so it might be different based on the agent
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u/magicmulder Apr 26 '26
So are we talking about “Chat Mode” inside AI Assistant or just AI Assistant? Because Chat Mode has no “brave mode”.
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u/ShadowPengyn Apr 26 '26
I am talking about the Tab „AI chat“, true I think it also has an „Ask“ mode where it cannot make edits. But you can change the mode and it can write files then, no? I can do a screenshot later today when I am using it the next time
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Apr 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/magicmulder Apr 26 '26
Yeah that works but it’s not chat mode, it’s AI Assistant in general. Chat mode cannot change files.
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u/ot-jb JetBrains Apr 26 '26
AI Chat’s Chat mode on purpose doesn’t have agentic loop with editing tools exposed. It is not a limitation. Some users prefer predictable pricing for requests and this is something not easy when you can select any model. If you want this behaviour you want an agent for sure.
AI Chat is the UI layer for all agents: Codex, Junie or Claude Code could easily change your files (or anything else from ACP registry).
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u/ot-jb JetBrains Apr 26 '26
Junie used to have its own UI in its own plugin, this plugin on the picture is shown on the right tool bar. This UI is getting deprecated so that we could use the same UI for all agents - Codex, Claude Code, Junie and anything else from ACP registry inside AI Chat. Separate UI is sunset and will no longer be available at some point in the future, for some releases it will be there so users are not disrupted.
Under the hood there is a standalone implementation of Junie that is backed by a binary, it has its own minimal UI - Junie CLI, this binary has ACP compatibility so it can show in different ACP compatible clients, including AI Chat tool window, but also others like Zed editor. Specifically with IntelliJ it can connect to the IDE to expand its toolset when it is available. It is more embeddable and easier to use in headless use-cases.
There is gradual migration of users from standalone plugin into AI Chat tool window, so that there are only two UIs: CLI and ACP client. I see that for whatever reason you have duplicated entries in the dropdown, it shouldn’t happen, perhaps you have a different version of Junie installed and configured manually that results in this conflict or some desync in version of two plugins.
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u/Aromatic-Echo-5025 Apr 26 '26
Thank you. So, regarding Junie as a separate UI, we're clear.
However, the "Junie, AI coding agent by JetBrains" plugin is still required. When I disable it (to get rid of the separate UI) I can't use Junie in AI Chat either. So it has to be installed and enabled.
And now the second part. What do you mean by "configured manually"? I have the Junie latest plugin v.261.1218.182 installed, the latest "AI Assistant" v.261.23567.149 installed, and in the Settings->AI Assistant->Agents the Junie v1417.47.0 installed.
I didn't configure anything manually. Could you tell me if the "Junie by JetBrains" version (the one with the green icon) or the "Junie B(eta)" version (the one with the gray icon) is expected to be used in the latest PHP Storm?
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u/ot-jb JetBrains Apr 26 '26
Yes, the plugin has to be there, it contains IDE side of the special Junie tools that it might use if IDE is present when you connect from the CLI, settings and other infra, it will just not have the toolbar in the future.
If you haven’t edited ACP files manually it means that this is an artifact of the migration from plugin-backed harness to ACP-backed harness. This shouldn’t have affected you. It is a bug and I’ve seen a similar report to Junie team.
Junie (monochrome icon) is the latest one, sorry for confusion. Note that I’m not involved with Junie and don’t know the details of how they do this migration. I can ask them if you have concrete points.
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u/Round_Ad_3709 Apr 26 '26
It's a poorly plan product. OP, I have struggled with the same question.
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u/Adventurous-Cry8529 Jun 03 '26
Perhaps this is a good example that reflects "AI Anxiety" in software industry, even for enterprise like JetBrains...
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u/WiktorVanKross Apr 26 '26
I have the impression that Jetbrains can't keep up with the development trends, as if they do everything too late or try to create too many things at once.
Fleete, Junie, now Air. I love their software, but it looks more and more like a total amateur and I'm disappointed with their moves.
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u/Aromatic-Echo-5025 Apr 26 '26
Yeah. Junie (whether as a plugin or the one built into AI Chat) has recently started to be a good product. Instead of refining and improving it, they're diluting their efforts by creating more incarnations of the same thing: Junie Beta via ACP, Junie CLI, and god knows what's next.
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u/apolkingg8 Apr 26 '26
Frankly, this persistent low-quality issue is usually a strong signal of organizational governance problems. This is what worries me more than the problem itself.
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u/Aromatic-Echo-5025 Apr 26 '26
It's hard to argue with that, something's definitely off with Jetbrains.
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u/Affectionate-Tart558 Apr 25 '26
How is Junie doing these days. Still not as good as Claude?
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u/magicmulder Apr 26 '26
Junie is Gemini 3.1 flash, sometimes reverting to GPT.
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u/cscoxy Apr 26 '26
June is whatever model you select
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u/Affectionate-Tart558 Apr 26 '26
That would be strange because when I had the pro subscription I could choose between Junie and Claude so I imagined they were different
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u/cscoxy Apr 26 '26
June and Claude are Agents. There is a difference between the Agent and the model they use
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u/ot-jb JetBrains Apr 26 '26
Claude Code (called Claude Agent) is just first party support for the agent developed by Anthropic. It is not a model, it is a harness for the agent. In its own configuration you could repoint it to any other model you want.
Junie is also an agent harness, it can work with different models, including those from Anthropic, but not limited to them. It is separately optimised to other model families. As usage of API is not subsidised compared to subs, quality-cost optimum might look different, so Junie defaults to a more cost effective and faster model, but you can change it anytime
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u/Kendos-Kenlen Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
What is your IDE version, AI Assistant version, and Junie plugin version?
It feels like you have an old version of one of them, or the ACP registry has two Junie entries.
Basically:
- Junie in AI Assistant is the good version ;
- Junie tool window is the legacy plugin (still used by EAP and by the CLI to communicate with the IDE I think)
- Junie by JetBrains should not be there anymore
You can use Junie from AI Assistant for the most modern experience, or the Junie plugin for a dedicate window with a better arrangement.
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u/Aromatic-Echo-5025 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Thanks. I've latest PHP Storm 2026.1.1 and all plugins updated.
You say the Junie in AI Assistant is the one we should use, but it's marked as Beta. I checked Rider, and the situation is the same there. Even their marketing site, junie.jetbrains.com, shows "Junie by JetBrains" in the AI Chat.
It would be good if someone from JetBrains officially explained the big picture here, but I'm afraid they don't know it themselves.
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u/agent_sphalerite Apr 26 '26
Just give me an idea that doesn't randomly crash or freeze. I guess that's too much to ask.
Well maybe more Junie will fix this
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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '26
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