What is jetbrainsd?

October 27, 2026 06:25 Updated

Question

What is the jetbrainsd (or jetbrainsd.exe) process, why does it stay running after closing the IDE and the Toolbox App, and can it be turned off?

Answer

JetBrains Daemon (jetbrainsd) is a lightweight background service that coordinates JetBrains tools. The daemon is becoming a required core component in upcoming releases. It is bundled with:

Toolbox App 3.3 and later
IntelliJ-based IDEs 2026.1 and later

See the related help page for details.

After all IDEs and the Toolbox App are closed, jetbrainsd process keeps running for 5 minutes, then stops automatically. Terminating the running process manually (a non-forced kill on macOS or Linux, or End task in Task Manager on Windows) is safe once all JetBrains clients are closed. The daemon will start again on the next IDE or Toolbox App launch.