The Czech tool manufacturer JetBrains is ending the further development of the Fleet development environment (IDE) and will no longer offer it for download after December 22, 2025. Fleet was intended as a modern, lightweight, and cross-platform development environment that was supposed to offer an alternative to the IntelliJ-based JetBrains tools.
Two parallel IDE families apparently caused confusion and brought little additional benefit. Despite its modern architecture and sleek design, Fleet could not clearly position itself within the JetBrains portfolio. According to a blog post, many users saw no compelling reason to switch from established environments such as IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, or WebStorm.
New Product for AI-Assisted Development
Instead of continuing Fleet, JetBr…
The Czech tool manufacturer JetBrains is ending the further development of the Fleet development environment (IDE) and will no longer offer it for download after December 22, 2025. Fleet was intended as a modern, lightweight, and cross-platform development environment that was supposed to offer an alternative to the IntelliJ-based JetBrains tools.
Two parallel IDE families apparently caused confusion and brought little additional benefit. Despite its modern architecture and sleek design, Fleet could not clearly position itself within the JetBrains portfolio. According to a blog post, many users saw no compelling reason to switch from established environments such as IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, or WebStorm.
New Product for AI-Assisted Development
Instead of continuing Fleet, JetBrains is working on a new development environment based on existing technology, according to its statements. The focus is on the concept of Agentic Development, where AI agents independently take on tasks such as updating tests, refactoring code, or creating new features.
Developers provide instructions, review results, and control the process. This is intended to create a new form of collaboration between humans and machines, which will take a central place in JetBrains’ product strategy in the long term.
Background on Fleet
Fleet originated as a JetBrains experiment starting in 2019, with the goal of creating a lightweight and cloud-capable alternative to the classic IntelliJ IDEs. Developed in Kotlin, the environment was intended to enable new ways of working with its modular architecture, faster startup, and remote capabilities. After its announcement in 2021, Fleet was repositioned several times – initially as a multi-language editor, later as a smart, AI-assisted editor with IDE functions. Many of the technical and design concepts tested during this time were later incorporated into other JetBrains products.
(mdo)
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.