Fleet's Final Flight as JetBrains Bets on Agentic AI

JetBrains Fleet Ends Dec 22, 2025 - What Product Teams Should Do Next

JetBrains will cease updates and distribution of Fleet on December 22, 2025, and refocus on an agentic, AI-driven development environment built on Fleet's core tech. For product leaders, this isn't just a sunsetting notice - it's a signal to consolidate tooling, rethink IDE strategy, and set a concrete plan for AI-assisted workflows.

Fleet delivered speed, polyglot support, and a clean UI, but it never escaped overlap with IntelliJ-based IDEs. A thin plugin ecosystem, perpetual "preview" status, and internal cannibalization pushed JetBrains to concentrate on one family of general-purpose IDEs while turning Fleet's tech into a new AI-first product.

Why Fleet Struggled to Find a Clear Slot

• Internal overlap: IntelliJ-based IDEs already owned the market for depth and stability.
• Ecosystem gap: fewer plugins and community extensions meant slower adoption.
• Positioning drag: "preview" perception and unclear differentiation slowed commitment from teams.
• Signals were there: plans for a Kotlin Multiplatform IDE on Fleet were dropped earlier in 2025 in favor of IntelliJ improvements.

What Agentic Development Means (Practical View)

Agentic development uses intelligent agents to handle tasks end-to-end: refactors, test generation, debugging flows, even code synthesis across services. JetBrains' next product builds on Fleet's platform and pushes in this direction, with human review in the loop and automation doing the busywork.

Expect deeper AI across the JetBrains ecosystem, while server-reliant features in existing Fleet installs may degrade over time. The brand changes, but the tech keeps moving.

Implications for Product Strategy

• Consolidate focus: Too many general-purpose editors confuse users and drain roadmap capacity.
• Prioritize ecosystem strength: Plugins, docs, and community still win decisions post-AI.
• Beware feature-parity traps: Chasing "same features, different brand" slows real innovation.
• Allocate for AI workflows: Budget and governance shift from "IDE choice" to "AI policy, data privacy, and oversight."

If You're a Product or Engineering Lead, Do This

• Audit who uses Fleet, where, and for what. Set a cutoff before Dec 22, 2025.
• Pick the migration target (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, Rider) and document plugin equivalents.
• Export settings and keymaps; test parity on debugging, remote dev, and Git workflows.
• Update CI/CD images and devcontainers to remove Fleet dependencies.
• Formalize AI policy: acceptable use, human-in-the-loop, data handling, and commit attribution.
• Train teams on agentic workflows and prompt patterns; measure impact on cycle time and defect rates.
• Set telemetry to track PR throughput, review time, regression density, and MTTR pre/post-migration.
• Communicate the plan and fallback path; keep a small "exception lane" for niche cases with a clear end date.

Technical Notes for Smooth Migration

• Export Fleet settings; import into IntelliJ-based IDEs where possible.
• Map must-have plugins to IntelliJ equivalents; identify gaps and workarounds.
• Confirm Git hooks, LFS, and code signing steps behave the same across IDEs.
• Re-check attach-to-process debugging, breakpoint behavior, and remote Docker flows.
• Expect AI Assistant behavior to change over time in Fleet; plan for continuity in IntelliJ-based tools.

Build vs. Buy for Agentic Workflows

Decide where you need differentiation. Buy commodity AI (autocomplete, basic refactors). Build where your domain, data, or workflows are unique. Keep humans accountable for approvals and production gates.

• Start with clear use cases: test creation, refactor queues, issue triage, doc generation.
• Guardrails: human review, traceability, and policy-backed prompts.
• Data controls: no PII in prompts, repository scoping, and audit logs.
• ROI metrics: saved engineering hours, escaped defects, PR cycle time, and incident MTTR.

Signals to Watch from JetBrains

• Release timing and scope for the new agentic product (a preview of "JetBrains Air" has been discussed).
• Pricing and seat model for AI features, including enterprise controls.
• Depth of integration with IntelliJ-based IDEs and plugin SDK direction.
• Offline/on-prem options for regulated teams.

Community Pulse

Reactions across X, Reddit, and forums split between disappointment and pragmatism. Many wanted Fleet's lightweight feel to survive; most agree the focus on one IDE family plus AI is a cleaner strategy. The takeaway is simple: simplify your stack, double down on AI where it saves the most time, and keep your review gates tight.

Risk and Compliance Checklist

• Lock a date to remove Fleet from golden images and dev laptops.
• Security review: unpatched IDEs can become a liability after the cutoff.
• Access: disable internal download mirrors and package feeds for Fleet builds.
• Docs: update onboarding guides, coding standards, and incident runbooks.

Where to Learn More

• JetBrains Blog - for official updates on Fleet's sunset and the new agentic product.
• Complete AI Training - Courses by Job - upskill product and engineering teams on AI-assisted development and workflow design.

Bottom Line

Fleet ends; the AI push accelerates. Consolidate your IDE footprint, stand up a clear AI policy, and pilot agentic workflows where the payoff is real. Keep humans in control, measure impact, and let the data guide how far you go.