Intellij IDEA Custom Plugin Repository Builder

This tool builds a Custom Plugin Repository for JetBrains IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA. It supports:

• Automatic download of public plugins from JetBrains Plugin Repository
• Hosting via built-in HTTP server
• Support for local/private plugins with rich metadata (name, vendor, description)
• Generates updatePlugins.xml in JetBrains plugin repository format

🔧 Quickstart

1. Build the repository

This downloads remote plugins (latest versions) and copies local plugin files, then generates updatePlugins.xml.

./repo-builder -build

2. Serve the repository

Launch an HTTP server to serve updatePlugins.xml and plugin files.

./repo-builder -serve

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⚙️ Configuration (config.yaml)

Your configuration should look like this:

serverUrl: http://localhost:3000
bindIp: 0.0.0.0
port: "3000"
dir: out

# Remote JetBrains plugins (by numeric plugin ID)
plugins:
  - "164"       # IdeaVim
  - "10080"     # .env files support

# Local plugin entries
localPlugins:
  - id: com.local
    version: 2.2.0
    since: "211.1.*"
    until: "999.*"
    file: ./plugins.zip
    name: plugin name
    vendor: abc
    vendorEmail: abc@abc.com
    vendorUrl: https://www.google.com
    description: describe

🔍 Field Descriptions

Field	Type	Description
serverUrl	string	Base URL to be used in updatePlugins.xml (e.g., http://localhost:3000)
bindIp	string	IP to bind the HTTP server (default: 0.0.0.0)
port	string	Port for HTTP server (default: 3000)
dir	string	Output directory for files and XML
plugins	list	List of public JetBrains plugin numeric IDs
localPlugins	list	List of local plugins with metadata and file path

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🧩 IntelliJ IDE Setup

1. Open Settings → Plugins
2. Click the ⚙️ icon → Manage Plugin Repositories
3. Add your custom repo URL:

http://localhost:3000/updatePlugins.xml

You’ll now see your custom/private plugins in the Marketplace tab.

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🛠 Advanced Features

• ✅ Full support for <name>, <vendor>, and <description> fields (including HTML)
• ✅ <![CDATA[ ... ]]> block for plugin descriptions
• ✅ Support for JetBrains build constraints via <idea-version since-build="..." until-build="..."/>
• ✅ Offline usage

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📌 Notes

• Remote plugin IDs can be found in plugin URLs, e.g.:
  https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/164-ideavim → ID is 164
• Remote plugins fetch latest release automatically
• Local plugins must specify a valid .zip or .jar plugin file

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🚧 TODO

• Add support for multiple JetBrains IDE versions in output
• Auto-sync from private plugin git repo or artifact repo (e.g., Nexus/Artifactory)
• Web UI for local plugin upload

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📚 References

• JetBrains Plugin Repository Format
• Custom Plugin Repositories in IntelliJ