command line IntelliJ on Mac OS X

First step, you'll follow and click the menu, Tools > Create Commandline Launcher you'll run this command on what you want open project's directory.

idea .

Try:

Tools > Create Commandline Launcher

This will create a command line launcher. After that you can launch IntelliJ from your desired folder like with a command like this :

idea .

or

idea <path to the folder>

Try running /Applications/IntelliJ\ IDEA.app/Contents/MacOS/idea instead. idea.sh is not designed for Mac and will not work without some manual changes.

Another option is to create the command line launcher: Tools | Create Command-line Launcher.

If you are using Toolbox, it provides the way to create the command launcher automatically.


IntelliJ can install a command line launcher for you, adding it to a PATH directory would make it as any other commands on the system. The command is "idea".

IntelliJ Command-line Launcher