Remote Development

JetBrains remote development splits the IDE across two machines. The IDE backend runs on a remote host, such as a dev container, an SSH host, or a WSL distribution, where your source code lives. A local client connects to that backend and gives you the editor, tool windows, and dialogs on your own machine.

Mermaid Studio has been rearchitected to fit this pattern and now runs in remote development sessions started from the JetBrains IDEs or the JetBrains Toolbox app, with one exception covered below.

In practice, you edit and preview .mmd and .mermaid files the same way you would locally.

JetBrains Gateway is not supported

Mermaid Studio’s remote development support does not include JetBrains Gateway. Connect from a full JetBrains IDE or the JetBrains Toolbox app instead.

Requirements

Remote development carries the same IDE floor as the rest of the plugin.

• IDE version — 2025.3 (build 253) or later on both the backend and the client
• Matching builds — install the same Mermaid Studio version on the backend and the client; mismatched builds cannot communicate across the remote connection

When you install from the JetBrains Marketplace on both ends, they converge on the same release automatically.

Where the editor runs

On a host running 2026.2.2 or later, the diagram editor and its preview run in the JetBrains Client on your machine, so edit mode, undo, and save respond as they do in a local IDE. On an older host, the preview is streamed from the backend.

Custom themes

Bundled and custom themes are stored in the IDE’s application settings and sync from the local client to the remote backend. A theme you create, import, or enable on the client appears in the Appearance menu and applies to the diagram’s frontmatter on the host in the same session.

Related

• Installation for system requirements and setup steps
• New to IntelliJ? for installing the IDE and the plugin