JetBrains says that starting with the 2026.2 release, opening a project stored in WSL now uses Native mode as the recommended entry point in IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm, and PhpStorm. In this mode, the IDE remains a Windows application while a small agent inside WSL handles files and processes on its behalf.
FROM 9P, TO WSLG, TO NATIVE MODE: THE EVOLUTION OF WSL INTEGRATION
Historically, JetBrains’ WSL support relied on several architectures, each with trade-offs. Early approaches used a 9P-based filesystem transport to bridge Windows and WSL, which introduced limitations such as symlink handling issues, Defender antivirus scans affecting file reads, and latency that impacted core IDE operations like indexing. Other approaches—WSLg and a Remote Development model where the backend ran inside WSL while the client stayed on Windows—also presented drawbacks related to rendering, window management, and maintenance complexity. TechStaged has also covered GitHub adds Trends tab to organization Code Quality dashboard to track code health over time.
- 9P filesystem transport limitations
- WSLg drawbacks for full IDE experience
- Remote Development backend-in-WSL trade-offs
THE NEW BACKBONE: IJENT AND EELAPI ENABLE NATIVE-LIKE WORKFLOWS
The current design centers on a lightweight agent named IJent that runs inside the target environment and a thin client that communicates with it. This arrangement provides Linux-like filesystem semantics and process execution without relying on the older interop layers. IJent uses a transport stack based on stdio with Hyper-V sockets on WSL for efficient transfers, while Rust keeps the agent slim and portable. JetBrains also introduces EelApi to abstract away local versus remote environments for plugin authors and platform contributors, so code can operate without special casing for WSL, Docker, or Dev Containers.
- IJent as IDE-specific agent inside WSL
- Rust-based, slim architecture
- Stdio transport with Hyper-V sockets
- EelApi for cross-environment compatibility
PERFORMANCE GAINS AND PRACTICAL IMPACT
JetBrains reports a measurable performance improvement with Native mode. In a test involving a large WSL project (spring-framework with 23 subprojects and 8,191 source files) on Windows 11 with WSL 2 and Ubuntu 24.04, using IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, Native mode demonstrated a 38% reduction in wait time for the initial open of the project.
The test setup used five runs to median results and compared against the previous approach to access WSL projects.
- 38% faster cold open in large WSL project
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR DEVELOPERS USING WSL PROJECTS
Opening a WSL project now directs users to Native mode by default in the three major JetBrains IDEs covered. The Remote Development entry point remains available on the Welcome screen but is no longer the recommended path for opening WSL projects.
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SOURCES
- The JetBrains Blog: The Evolution of WSL Support in JetBrains IDEs Published · Primary source
