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10x Lighter Than VS Code, JetBrains Officially Announces a Brand New Lightweight AI IDE
Anyone who's used Cursor or VS Code Agent has probably suffered through this kind of pain:
The AI goes on a wild rampage, turning your main repo into a mess beyond recognition, and when things break, rolling back becomes a frantic scramble. It behaves like handing your home renovation over to a temp worker who leaves a disaster behind for you to clean up yourself.
Luckily, JetBrains just released a brand new AI IDE called ThinkRail a few days ago.
Unlike the previous "Air" that JetBrains released based on the IntelliJ platform, this time ThinkRail is genuinely lightweight.
The editor core directly reuses VS Code's Monaco, with the underlying coding agent engine being `pi`.
It also doesn't treat AI as just a plugin like IDEA does; instead, AI is the true protagonist of ThinkRail.
The most striking idea is the git worktree isolated workspace.
Traditional AI IDEs, including VS Code and Cursor, read and write code directly in your current working directory. If the Agent make a mistake, then it directly impacts your project’s source code.
Every time ThinkRail launches an Agent task, it creates a new, independent git worktree workspace, with its own dedicated branch and run directory.
Let's walk through the brand new experience this new IDE brings.
