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OpenIDEA’s application id is ai.l0ng.openidea, and every directory below is named after it.

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Locations

On macOS and Linux some of these are the same folder. About OpenIDEA shows the configuration directory and has Open Configuration Folder.

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Configuration

  • settings.toml: your global settings. See the settings reference.
  • recent.json, recent-groups.json: recent projects and their groups.
  • languages/: language definitions you added or overrode.

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User data

  • plugins/: installed plugins.
  • scratches/: scratch files.
  • history/: Local History of every project.
  • project-trust.json: trusted projects and locations.

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Local data

Everything here can be downloaded or rebuilt, so it is safe to delete while OpenIDEA is closed:
  • tools/: language servers, debug adapters, formatters and JDKs that OpenIDEA installed.
  • language-server-runtimes/: runtimes the language servers run on.
  • index/: the symbol index of each project.
  • cache/: build tool sync results (Maven, Gradle) and other caches.
  • lsp/: language server workspaces, such as the Java server’s import data.
  • notebook-runtime/, server/: the notebook runtime and remote-development server downloads.
  • agents/tools/, agents/registry.json: agent tools and the agent registry.
To clear caches from inside the IDE, use File › Invalidate Caches…. The symbol index and syntax caches are always rebuilt; you can also check Clear file system cache and Local History, Clear language server workspaces (Java import data and indexes) and Clear build tool caches (Maven / Gradle sync results). Choose Invalidate and Restart: the caches are removed at the next start, before any project opens.

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Project folder

Each project keeps its own files in .openidea/ at the project root:
  • settings.toml: settings saved with This project selected.
  • run.toml: run configurations stored as project files, meant to be committed.
  • run.local.toml: run configurations kept to yourself. OpenIDEA adds it to .openidea/.gitignore.
  • workspace.json: the projects of a workspace.

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Move the local data

The local data can grow large (JDKs, language servers, indexes). To keep it on another drive, set OPENIDEA_LOCAL_DATA_DIR to an absolute path before starting OpenIDEA. The IDE then uses <OPENIDEA_LOCAL_DATA_DIR>/ai.l0ng.openidea and creates it if missing. On Windows, for example:
On macOS and Linux, set it in the environment OpenIDEA starts from.
  • If the path is relative or can’t be written to, OpenIDEA shows an error and exits instead of falling back to the default location.
  • Configuration, user data and logs stay where they are. Logs are still written when the variable is wrong, so you can find out why.
  • Existing data is not moved. Either let OpenIDEA download and rebuild it, or quit OpenIDEA and move only tools/, language-server-runtimes/, index/, cache/, lsp/, notebook-runtime/, server/, logs/, agents/tools/, agents/registry.json and the top-level java-usages-*.jar / java-usages-*.tmp files, keeping their relative paths. Leave everything else in place.

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Logs

OpenIDEA writes one log file per day, openidea.<date>.log, and keeps the last 7. Panics are written to the current log too.
  • Open the folder with Help › Show Log in Finder (macOS), Help › Show Log in Explorer (Windows) or Help › Show Log in Files (Linux). The same link is in About OpenIDEA.
  • For more detail, start OpenIDEA with the RUST_LOG environment variable set, for example RUST_LOG=debug. The default is info, with debug output from the app itself.
Attach the log when you report a problem.