Draft:IDEasy

IDEasy was introduced in 2024 as a modern replacement for devonfw-ide . It was developed to address limitations in flexibility, maintainability, and cross-platform support found in its predecessor. The tool is actively maintained by contributors from the devonfw community and is hosted on GitHub .

IDEasy provides a CLI for initializing fully configured development environments using a single command. Each environment is defined by a lightweight configuration stored in a Git repository, allowing teams to version, share, and maintain project-specific settings .

The tool supports sandboxed environments to prevent conflicts between tools or configurations, facilitating parallel development across multiple projects. It also supports multi-tenancy, enabling multiple environments to coexist on the same machine . IDEasy supports multiple workspaces, enabling developers to manage different branches or sub-projects, with clear labeling in integrated development environments (IDEs). It automates environment setup and updates, reducing manual steps and configuration inconsistencies. The tool follows a lightweight design that avoids global system modifications . Designed for extensibility, IDEasy integrates with a wide range of development tools, including proprietary software where licensing permits. Project configurations can be stored in version control systems such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket, supporting collaborative workflows .

While IDEasy is currently supported on Windows, support for macOS and Linux is under active development. The tool is distributed under the Apache License 2.0 and is available as free and open-source software .

IDEasy is primarily written in Java, with supporting scripts in Shell. It is distributed as a standalone executable and does not require administrative privileges to run. The tool uses Git for configuration management and supports integration with various development tools and IDEs. While cross-platform support is still being finalized, the tool is designed to be platform-independent .

To use IDEasy, developers clone a project-specific configuration repository and run the ide create command using the IDEasy CLI. This initiates the download and setup of the required tools and configurations. The tool is designed for ease of use and requires limited manual intervention {{Cite web |title=IDEasy Documentation |url=https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy?tab=readme-ov-file#documentation |access-date=May 21, 2025 |website=GitHub}}.

Several tools offer functionality that is similar or complementary to IDEasy, depending on the requirements of a development team or individual developer. IDEasy focuses on automating and maintaining complete, project-specific development environments. Other tools are designed for installing individual software packages or managing isolated toolchains {{Cite web |title=IDEasy Alternatives |url=https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/blob/main/documentation/alternatives.adoc |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=GitHub}}.

Development Containers (DevContainers), developed by Microsoft, define development environments using Docker containers. They support reproducible setups and integrate with IDEs such as Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ. These containers require Docker and may introduce performance overhead or additional complexity in lightweight or native development scenarios {{Cite web |title=Development Containers |url=https://containers.dev/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=DevContainers}}.

SDKMAN! is a command-line utility for managing parallel versions of SDKs such as Java, Maven, and Kotlin. It is cross-platform and provides a method for SDK management. It does not support the orchestration of complete development environments {{Cite web |title=SDKMAN! |url=https://sdkman.io/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=SDKMAN}}.

Chocolatey, WinGet, and Scoop are command-line package managers for Windows. They enable software installation and are maintained by the community or Microsoft. These tools are used for individual tool installation and do not manage project-specific configurations or environments {{Cite web |title=Chocolatey |url=https://chocolatey.org/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Chocolatey}}{{Cite web |title=Windows Package Manager |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Microsoft}}{{Cite web |title=Scoop |url=https://scoop.sh/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Scoop}}.

Homebrew is a package manager for macOS, with support also available for Linux. It is used for installing a variety of software packages. It does not provide features for managing isolated or project-specific development setups {{Cite web |title=Homebrew |url=https://brew.sh/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Homebrew}}.

Nix is a cross-platform package manager that supports reproducibility and isolation. It enables precise control over dependencies and allows the creation of isolated environments. It uses a declarative configuration model that may require familiarity for effective use {{Cite web |title=Nix & NixOS |url=https://nixos.org/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=NixOS}}.

Flatpak is a Linux package manager that includes application dependencies, enabling software to run across different distributions. It is primarily intended for desktop applications and is not commonly used for command-line development tools {{Cite web |title=Flatpak |url=https://flatpak.org/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Flatpak}}.

mvnw and gradlew are wrapper scripts for Maven and Gradle. They store configuration in version control to ensure consistent build tool versions across teams. These scripts manage only the associated build tools and do not configure broader development environments {{Cite web |title=Apache Maven Wrapper |url=https://maven.apache.org/wrapper/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Apache}}{{Cite web |title=Gradle Wrapper Reference |url=https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/gradle_wrapper.html |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Gradle}}

IDEasy is released under the Apache License 2.0..{{Cite web |last=Apache Software Foundation |title=Apache License, Version 2.0 |url=https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 |access-date=May 20, 2025 |website=Apache}}. The project is hosted on GitHub, where users can report issues, contribute code, and participate in discussions{{Cite web |title=IDEasy Discussions |url=https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/discussions |access-date=May 21, 2025 |website=GitHub}}. As of 2025, the project has over 30 contributors and is under active development with regular updates

• Command-line interface (CLI)
• Open-source Software
• Capgemini
• Apache License

{{reflist}}

• [https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy IDEasy GitHub]
• [https://github.com/devonfw devonfw GitHub]
• [https://devonfw.com/ devonfw]