JetBrains debuts agentic AI coding with 'Junie', but reviews for existing AI Assistant are poor • DEVCLASS
JetBrains has introduced a new AI coding agent called Junie, now in private preview for Mac and Linux only, a move towards agentic AI for developers, rather than just coding assistance.
Agentic AI implies the ability to complete tasks, rather than just proposing code. Developers type an instruction such as “Implement CRUD operations to manage bookmarks with user interface” (an example taken from a JetBrains introductory video) and the agent will complete the task, though with the usual caveats about the need for human review and refinement.
The JetBrains introductory post is short on detail. We asked the company to clarify what kinds of task Junie can accomplish. The company told us that the Junie preview, for which there is a waitlist, will work on release versions of IDEA Ultimate and PyCharm (the Python-specific IDE) from versions 23.3 (first released December 2023) onwards, the same release in which JetBrains AI Assistant went live. Support for other IDEs will follow.
Currently Junie is limited to code in Python, Kotlin and Java. Concerning framework support, we were told there are “no limitations on frameworks,” though whether Junie is equally skilled in Django, Flask and Reflex, for example (all Python web frameworks) is an open question.
