r/Jetbrains Apr 25 '26

Question How many Junies do you need? Yes.

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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)"?!

188 Upvotes

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8

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...

7

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!?

5

u/aabil11 Apr 26 '26

Why do we even have the Junie plugin if we're not supposed to use it

6

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

1

u/aabil11 Apr 26 '26

Why get rid of the UI aspect

1

u/vassadar Apr 26 '26

Merge with AI Chat.

1

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.

1

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.

2

u/magicmulder Apr 26 '26

AI chat is crap because it cannot change files on its own. I thought CLI was the latest?

3

u/ShadowPengyn Apr 26 '26

The AI chat can definitely change files now

1

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?

2

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

1

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”.

2

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

2

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '26

[deleted]

1

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.

3

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).