3 minute read

I’ve been using JetBrains Rider for quite some time now.

I started using JetBrains Rider because I used both a Windows PC and a Mac PC and I wanted a consistent experience between the both. JetBrains Rider provided that and now I am hooked.

I thought I’d take some time to blog about the plugins I use to help with my day-to-day coding (mostly in Microsoft .NET and Azure), presenting (public speaking), and blogging (using Jekyll).

All of these plugins can be downloaded from either the JetBrains plugin Marketplace or directly in the IDE.

This is an updated post from a previous post I wrote in June 2022 and July 2024.

So here is the list.

General Development

Plugin What it does
.env files support As the name implies, it provides environment variable completion for Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml files
.ignore Allows you to manage your .gitignore files in a more efficient way
Big Data Tools Provides tools for working with big data technologies such as Hadoop and Spark.
Ideolog Provides enhanced log file viewing and analysis capabilities within the IDE.
Key Promoter X Let’s you know if there is a keystroke shortcut for any mouse based IDE commands
Karma Provides integration with the Karma test runner for JavaScript and TypeScript projects.
OpenTelemetry Provides tools for collecting, processing, and exporting telemetry data from applications. Note: This plugin is currently in a beta
Structured Logging Contains some useful analyzers for structured logging. Supports Serilog, NLog, and Microsoft.Extensions.Logging
Terraform and HCL Improved Terraform and OpenTofu support is tailored for developers, SREs, and DevOps teams, supporting infrastructure management with features like syntax highlighting, code completion, and real-time error checking.
Uno Platform The Uno Platform plugin for JetBrains Rider enables Hot Reload support for Uno Platform apps, streamlining the development of cross-platform .NET Mobile, Web, and Desktop Apps.

AI Tools

Plugin What it does
GitHub Copilot GitHub Copilot uses OpenAI Codex to suggest code and entire functions in real-time right from your editor. Note: This plugin is free but requires a paid subscription service
JetBrains AI Assistant JetBrains AI Assistant provides AI-powered features for software development based on the JetBrains AI Service. The service transparently connects you, as an IDE user, to different large language models (LLMs). Note: This plugin is free but requires a paid subscription service
JetBrains Junie JetBrains Junie is your coding agent by JetBrains designed to handle tasks autonomously or in collaboration with a developer.

Microsoft Specific Development

Plugin What it does
.NET Aspire Provides support for .NET Aspire in Rider

Azure Specific Development

Plugin What it does
Application Insights Debug Log Viewer Provides the ability to view Azure Monitor (Application Insights) telemetry in the IDE
Azure Toolkit for Rider Rider plugin for integration with Azure cloud services. Allow to create, configure, and deploy .Net Core and .Net Web Apps to Azure from Rider on all supported platforms

Presenting

Plugin What it does
Window Arranger This plugin helps you easily switch between projects, arrange project windows, and resize them to various predefined dimensions. Note: This plugin used to be called Window Resizer

Writing

I know longer have anything in this category since I use GitHub Copilot and JetBrains AI Assistant.

No longer in the list

Plugin What it does Why did it drop
Presentation Assistant This plugin shows name and Win/Mac shortcuts of any action you invoke Built into the IDE now
PowerShell Provides PowerShell intellisense and script execution support for IntelliJ IDEs Turns out I don’t edit PowerShell scripts that often
Rainbow Brackets Provides colored brackets, parentheses, and lines in the IDE Built into the IDE now
String Manipulation Case switching, sorting, filtering, incrementing, aligning to columns, grepping, escaping, encoding… Very helpful when working with tabular data No longer a need for this plugin
Azure DevOps Azure DevOps is a plugin to enable working with Git and TFVC repositories on Azure DevOps Services or Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2015+ Built into the IDE now
Grazie Intelligent spelling and grammar checks for any text you write in the IDE Between Github CoPilot and JetBrains AI Assistant, it covers what I need
Grazie Professional Enhances the base Grazie plugin with advanced writing assistance for English text in your IDE. Between Github CoPilot and JetBrains AI Assistant, it covers what I need
.NET Core User Secrets Provides the ability to create and edit user secrets in .NET projects Built into the IDE now

Wrap Up

You’ll also notice that a lot of the plugins I used to use are now built into the IDE.

Do you have a favorite not listed? Let me know.