Jewel aims at recreating the IntelliJ Platform's New UI Swing Look and Feel in Compose for Desktop, providing a desktop-optimized theme and set of components.

Jewel provides an implementation of the IntelliJ Platform themes that can be used in any Compose for Desktop application. Additionally, it has a Swing LaF Bridge that only works in the IntelliJ Platform (i.e., used to create IDE plugins), but automatically mirrors the current Swing LaF into Compose for a native-looking, consistent UI.

The first thing to add is the necessary Gradle plugins, including the Compose Multiplatform plugin. You need to add a custom repository for it in settings.gradle.kts:

pluginManagement {
    repositories {
        google()
        gradlePluginPortal()
        maven("https://maven.pkg.jetbrains.space/public/p/compose/dev")
        mavenCentral()
    }
}

Then, in your app's build.gradle.kts:

plugins {
    // Should align with the Kotlin and Compose dependencies in Jewel
    kotlin("jvm") version "1.9.21"
    id("org.jetbrains.compose") version "1.6.0-dev1440"
}

repositories {
    maven("https://packages.jetbrains.team/maven/p/kpm/public/")
    // Any other repositories you need (e.g., mavenCentral())
}

To use Jewel in your app, you only need to add the relevant dependency. There are two scenarios: standalone Compose for Desktop app, and IntelliJ Platform plugin.

If you're writing a standalone app, then you should depend on the latest int-ui-standalone-* artifact:

dependencies {
    // See https://github.com/JetBrains/Jewel/releases for the release notes
    implementation("org.jetbrains.jewel:jewel-int-ui-standalone-[latest platform version]:[jewel version]")

    // Optional, for custom decorated windows:
    implementation("org.jetbrains.jewel:jewel-int-ui-decorated-window-[latest platform version]:[jewel version]")

    // Do not bring in Material (we use Jewel)
    implementation(compose.desktop.currentOs) {
        exclude(group = "org.jetbrains.compose.material")
    }
}

For an IntelliJ Platform plugin, then you should depend on the appropriate ide-laf-bridge-* artifact:

dependencies {
    // See https://github.com/JetBrains/Jewel/releases for the release notes
    // The platform version is a supported major IJP version (e.g., 232 or 233 for 2023.2 and 2023.3 respectively)
    implementation("org.jetbrains.jewel:jewel-ide-laf-bridge-[platform version]:[jewel version]")

    // Do not bring in Material (we use Jewel) and Coroutines (the IDE has its own)
    api(compose.desktop.currentOs) {
        exclude(group = "org.jetbrains.compose.material")
        exclude(group = "org.jetbrains.kotlinx")
    }
}

Jewel doesn't officially support using ProGuard to minimize and/or obfuscate your code, and there is currently no plan to. That said, people are reporting successes in using it. Please note that there is no guarantee that it will keep working, and you most definitely need to have some rules in place. We don't provide any official rule set, but these have been known to work for some: https://github.com/romainguy/kotlin-explorer/blob/main/compose-desktop.pro

For each version of Jewel, these are the minimum supported Kotlin and Compose Multiplatform versions:

For older versions please refer to the Jewel tags and release notes.

The Compose Compiler version used is the latest compatible with the given Kotlin version. See here for the Compose Compiler release notes, which indicate the compatibility.

The minimum supported Kotlin version is dictated by the minimum supported IntelliJ IDEA platform.

The project is split in modules:

1. buildSrc contains the build logic, including:
   • The jewel and jewel-publish configuration plugins
   • The jewel-check-public-api and jewel-linting configuration plugins
   • The Theme Palette generator plugin
   • The Studio Releases generator plugin
2. foundation contains the foundational Jewel functionality:
   • Basic components without strong styling (e.g., SelectableLazyColumn, BasicLazyTree)
   • The JewelTheme interface with a few basic composition locals
   • The state management primitives
   • The Jewel annotations
   • A few other primitives
3. ui contains all the styled components and custom painters logic
4. decorated-window contains basic, unstyled functionality to have custom window decoration on the JetBrains Runtime
5. int-ui contains two modules:
   • int-ui-standalone has a standalone version of the Int UI styling values that can be used in any Compose for Desktop app
   • int-ui-decorated-window has a standalone version of the Int UI styling values for the custom window decoration that can be used in any Compose for Desktop app
6. ide-laf-bridge contains the Swing LaF bridge to use in IntelliJ Platform plugins (see more below)
7. markdown contains a few modules:
   • core the core logic for parsing and rendering Markdown documents with Jewel, using GitHub-like styling
   • extension contains several extensions to the base CommonMark specs that can be used to add more features
   • ide-laf-bridge-styling contains the IntelliJ Platform bridge theming for the Markdown renderer
   • int-ui-standalone-styling contains the standalone Int UI theming for the Markdown renderer
8. samples contains the example apps, which showcase the available components:
   • standalone is a regular CfD app, using the standalone theme definitions and custom window decoration
   • ide-plugin is an IntelliJ plugin that showcases the use of the Swing Bridge

Code on the main branch is developed and tested against the current latest IntelliJ Platform version.

When the EAP for a new major version starts, we cut a releases/xxx release branch, where xxx is the tracked major IJP version. At that point, the main branch starts tracking the latest available major IJP version, and changes are cherry-picked into each release branch as needed. All active release branches have the same functionality (where supported by the corresponding IJP version), but might differ in platform version-specific fixes and internals.

The standalone Int UI theme will always work the same way as the latest major IJP version; release branches will not include the int-ui module, which is always released from the main branch.

Releases of Jewel are always cut from a tag on the main branch; the HEAD of each releases/xxx branch is then tagged as [mainTag]-xxx, and used to publish the artifacts for that major IJP version.

The standalone theme can be used in any Compose for Desktop app. You use it as a normal theme, and you can customise it to your heart's content. By default, it matches the official Int UI specs.

For an example on how to set up a standalone app, you can refer to the standalone sample.

To use Jewel components in a non-IntelliJ Platform environment, you need to wrap your UI hierarchy in a IntUiTheme composable:

IntUiTheme(isDark = false) {
    // ...
}

If you want more control over the theming, you can use other IntUiTheme overloads, like the standalone sample does.

The JetBrains Runtime allows windows to have a custom decoration instead of the regular title bar.

The standalone sample app shows how to easily get something that looks like a JetBrains IDE; if you want to go very custom, you only need to depend on the decorated-window module, which contains all the required primitives, but not the Int UI styling.

To get an IntelliJ-like custom title bar, you need to pass the window decoration styling to your theme call, and add the DecoratedWindow composable at the top level of the theme:

IntUiTheme(
   theme = themeDefinition,
   styling = ComponentStyling.default().decoratedWindow(
      titleBarStyle = TitleBarStyle.light()
   ),
) {
    DecoratedWindow(
        onCloseRequest = { exitApplication() },
    ) {
        // ...
    }
}

Jewel includes a crucial element for proper integration with the IDE: a bridge between the Swing components — theme and LaF — and the Compose world.

This bridge ensures that we pick up the colours, typography, metrics, and images as defined in the current IntelliJ theme, and apply them to the Compose components as well. This means Jewel will automatically adapt to IntelliJ Platform themes that use the standard theming mechanisms.

If you're writing an IntelliJ Platform plugin, you should use the SwingBridgeTheme instead of the standalone theme:

SwingBridgeTheme {
    // ...
}

To use Jewel in the IntelliJ Platform, you should depend on the appropriate jewel-ide-laf-bridge-* artifact, which will bring in the necessary transitive dependencies. These are the currently supported versions of the IntelliJ Platform and the branch on which the corresponding bridge code lives:

For an example on how to set up an IntelliJ Plugin, you can refer to the ide-plugin sample.

When you want to draw an icon from the resources, you can either use the Icon composable and pass it the resource path and the corresponding class to look up the classpath from, or go one lever deeper and use the lower level, Painter-based API.

The Icon approach looks like this:

// Load the "close" icon from the IDE's AllIcons class
Icon(
    "actions/close.svg",
    iconClass = AllIcons::class.java,
    contentDescription = "Close",
)

To obtain a Painter, instead, you'd use:

val painterProvider = rememberResourcePainterProvider(
    path = "actions/close.svg",
    iconClass = AllIcons::class.java
)
val painter by painterProvider.getPainter()

Jewel emulates the under-the-hood machinations that happen in the IntelliJ Platform when loading icons. Specifically, the resource will be subject to some transformations before being loaded.

For example, in the IDE, if New UI is active, the icon path may be replaced with a different one. Some key colors in SVG icons will also be replaced based on the current theme. See the docs.

Beyond that, even in standalone, Jewel will pick up icons with the appropriate dark/light variant for the current theme, and for bitmap icons it will try to pick the 2x variants based on the LocalDensity.

If you have a stateful icon, that is if you need to display different icons based on some state, you can use the PainterProvider.getPainter(PainterHint...) overload. You can then use one of the state-mapping PainterHint to let Jewel load the appropriate icon automatically:

// myState implements SelectableComponentState and has a ToggleableState property
val myPainter by myPainterProvider.getPainter(
    if (myState.toggleableState == ToggleableState.Indeterminate) {
        IndeterminateHint
    } else {
        PainterHint.None
    },
    Selected(myState),
    Stateful(myState),
)

Where the IndeterminateHint looks like this:

private object IndeterminateHint : PainterSuffixHint() {
    override fun suffix(): String = "Indeterminate"
}

Assuming the PainterProvider has a base path of components/myIcon.svg, Jewel will automatically translate it to the right path based on the state. If you want to learn more about this system, look at the PainterHint interface and its implementations.

To load a system font, you can obtain it by its family name:

val myFamily = FontFamily("My Family")

If you want to use a font embedded in the JetBrains Runtime, you can use the EmbeddedFontFamily API instead:

import javax.swing.text.StyledEditorKit.FontFamilyAction

// Will return null if no matching font family exists in the JBR
val myEmbeddedFamily = EmbeddedFontFamily("Embedded family")

// It's recommended to load a fallback family when dealing with embedded familes
val myFamily = myEmbeddedFamily ?: FontFamily("Fallback family")

You can obtain a FontFamily from any java.awt.Font — including from JBFonts — by using the asComposeFontFamily() API:

val myAwtFamily = myFont.asComposeFontFamily()

// This will attempt to resolve the logical AWT font
val myLogicalFamily = Font("Dialog").asComposeFontFamily()

// This only works in the IntelliJ Platform,
// since JBFont is only available there
val myLabelFamily = JBFont.label().asComposeFontFamily()

As this is Compose for Desktop, you get a good degree of interoperability with Swing. To avoid glitches and z-order issues, you should enable the experimental Swing rendering pipeline before you initialize Compose content.

The ToolWindow.addComposeTab() extension function provided by the ide-laf-bridge module will take care of that for you. However, if you want to also enable it in other scenarios and in standalone applications, you can call the enableNewSwingCompositing() function in your Compose entry points (that is, right before creating a ComposePanel).

Here is a small selection of projects that use Compose for Desktop and Jewel:

• Package Search (IntelliJ Platform plugin)
• Kotlin Explorer (standalone app)
• ...and more to come!

You can find help on the #jewel channel on the Kotlin Slack. If you don't already have access to the Kotlin Slack, you can request it here.

Jewel is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

Copyright 2022–4 JetBrains s.r.o.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.