Please make sure to enable IntelliJ in gitpod.io preferences: https://gitpod.io/preferences IntelliJ delivers better experience for development of JetBrains plugins. We should as well use it for dogfooding. If you experience any issues with JetBrains remote dev make sure to report issues here under remote development subsystem.

Usually you will need to create a preview environments to try your changes, but if your changes don't touch any other components beside the backend plugin then you can test against the running workspace:

Launch ./launch-dev-server.sh from components/ide/jetbrains/backend-plugin. It builds the backend plugin, and start another JB backend in the remote debug mode with it against sprint-petclinic project and services of a running workspace.

cd components/ide/jetbrains/backend-plugin
./launch-dev-server.sh

In order to open the thin client for the dev backend use a gitpod gateway link from logs:

*********************************************************

Gitpod gateway link: jetbrains-gateway://connect#gitpodHost=ak-jb-backend-debug-flow.staging.gitpod-dev.com&workspaceId=gitpodio-gitpod-rvg0x7havor&backendPort=63343

*********************************************************

You should see following in the backend logs, copy the debug port:

Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS:  -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=*:0
Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 54963

Create a new Remote JVM Debug launch configuration with the copied port and launch it.
You should be able to put breakpoint now, and it will hit. If it does not hit please also check in Main Window. As for now each thin client is accompanied by another window (main) which directly renders UI from backend. Sometimes there are bugs when a file will be opened in this window instead of the thin client. It also can be that the main window is not visible then try to find it in the left top corner and resize. It looks almost like a line.