--- title: "Faster JetBrains IDEs with shared indexes - Blog - Coder" description: "Learn how JetBrains’ shared index feature can speed up your IDEs with large projects." image: "/api/dynamic-og?title=Faster+JetBrains+IDEs+with+shared+indexes&randomBackground=true&styles=%7B%22height%22%3A162%2C%22width%22%3A302%2C%22padding%22%3A16%2C%22titleSize%22%3A24%2C%22logo%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A80%2C%22height%22%3A12.15%7D%7D" canonical: "https://coder.com/blog/faster-jetbrains-ides-with-shared-indexes" --- Dec 9 20214 min read # Faster JetBrains IDEs with shared indexes [Ben Potter](https://coder.com/blog/author/bpmct) Share this article If you develop with IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, GoLand, or other JetBrains IDEs, it’s likely you’ve waited for “indexing” to complete after opening a project. While this may be annoying, it’s necessary for IntelliJ and other heavy-weight IDEs to have features such as code search, highligiting, refactoring, and code completion. Waiting for an IDE to finish indexing a project might not be a big problem for many workflows. After the first load, indexes are cached and subsequent runs are faster. However, indexing time can be a huge blocker for developers, especially in these cases: - large projects (monorepos, many dependencies, monolithic applications) - running old/slow machines (indexing is CPU-intensive) - ephemeral developer workspaces (containers, remote IDEs) ![The #1 Programmer Excuse For Legitimately Slacking Off: "My code's indexing."](https://www.datocms-assets.com/19109/1639071568-indexes-adjusted.png?fit=clip&fm=webp&w=3840&q=90) The #1 Programmer Excuse For Legitimately Slacking Off: "My code's indexing." In this post, we’ll cover how [shared indexes](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/shared-indexes.html) can significantly reduce IDE load times, share some examples, and a one-line command to generate these for your project. (Historically, shared indexes have been difficult to set up) ## How indexing works Indexing works by traversing the project’s codebase to create a “virtual map” of classes, methods, and objects for future lookups. After the index is generated, it is cached on your device for later use. Indexing a codebase will likely take the longest **the first time you open it on your machine**. When the codebase changes, such as pulling code or switching branches, your indexes will “update,” but significantly faster than the first time. ## Shared indexes ⚡ [Shared indexes](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/shared-indexes.html) make it possible to host pre-generated indexes for others to download, significantly improving loading speeds across your team. These remote indexes work in conjunction with local indexing to ensure your IDE always has up-to-date information on the codebase. ![Background Tasks window: loading cdr/code-server indexes in WebStorm](https://www.datocms-assets.com/19109/1639079914-final61b24be6b9a30400a127b80d760422.gif?fit=clip&fm=webp&w=3840&q=90) Background Tasks window: loading cdr/code-server indexes in WebStorm ## Generating JetBrains shared indexes for your project JetBrains has a [guide for creating shared indexes](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/shared-indexes.html), but it involves many steps, including downloading custom tooling and uploading indexes to a CDN. It also lacks instructions for automating this process, to generate indexes in CI, for example. Using a Docker container to generate shared indexes makes it simple to try locally or automate with cron/CI: ``` ``` After generating indexes, you can upload the output folder to your CDN, or a local server. You can also use shared indexes without a CDN by using a network share or even your local filesystem for testing. Check out my GitHub repo for details: [https://github.com/bpmct/jetbrains-indexer](https://github.com/bpmct/jetbrains-indexer) ## Benchmarking shared indexes I tested indexing time for some popular projects on my 2019 MacBook Pro. To benchmark your own projects, `File → Invalidate Caches` in your IDE will allow you to opt in/out of downloading shared indexes to simulate first launching your project. | Project | Language(s) | Local indexing 🐌 | With shared indexes ⚡ | Improvement % | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [kubernetes/kubernetes](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes) | Go | 2m 40s | 22s | 727% | | [cdr/code-server](https://github.com/cdr/code-server) | Typescript | 2m 30s | 34s | 441% | | Coder internal monorepo | Go & Typescript | 3m 20s | 32s | 625% | | [jetbrains/intellij-community](https://github.com/jetbrains/intellij-community) | Java | 6m 30s | 2m 15s | 288% | These times were averaged across two test runs. Your mileage will vary depending on network speeds, device performance, etc. ## Remote development & shared indexes in JetBrains Recently, JetBrains released [remote development support](https://www.jetbrains.com/remote-development/), making it simple to develop from powerful, remote workspaces. On-demand workspaces have a lot of benefits, such as faster onboarding and better reproducibility. However, first-time indexing happens much more frequently, since, after all, workspaces are meant to be ephemeral. Shared indexes work with [Coder](https://coder.com), our remote development platform. Coder supports all JetBrains IDEs locally, or via the web browser. If you don’t want to host a CDN for shared indexes, you can include them in the workspace image, so everything loads in a snap ⚡ If you’d like to learn more about Coder, you can [request a demo](https://coder.com/demo) or [try it for free](https://coder.com/trial). ## References - [Talk: Indexing, or How We Made Indexes Shared and Fast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJKff0QUd3c) - [JetBrains Remote Development](https://www.jetbrains.com/remote-development/) - [JetBrains docs: Indexing](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/shared-indexes.html) - [GitHub: idea-shared-index-dockerfile](https://github.com/damintsew/idea-shared-index-dockerfile) ### Subscribe to our newsletter Want to stay up to date on all things Coder? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter for the latest articles, workshops, events, and announcements.