DOT Studio

Status

Version 1.0.0 was submitted to the JetBrains Marketplace on 2026-10-03 and is in review. We’ll add the store link here when JetBrains approves the listing. Until then you can install the exact ZIP we submitted from the GitHub release, which also gives its SHA-256 checksum. To install it, download the ZIP, then in the IDE choose Settings › Plugins › ⚙ › Install Plugin from Disk… and pick the file.

What it does

From the README and the 1.0.0 changelog:

• .dot and .gv files open as DOT files, with syntax highlighting, error highlighting that marks only the broken statement, folding, brace matching, commenting and a Structure view.
• A live preview in a split editor renders the graph as you type. Graphviz is bundled with the plugin, so you don’t need to install it. Choose a layout engine with layout= in the graph.
• Zoom and pan the preview, and export the graph as SVG, or as PNG at 1x or 2x.
• No network calls and no data collection (by design; QA saw none in the logs but didn’t run a network capture).

It is compatible with JetBrains IDEs 2025.2 to 2026.2: JetBrains Plugin Verifier checks it against IntelliJ IDEA builds 252 to 262 (see the build file). That is a compatibility check, not a test run. QA ran it in the two IDEs below.

Why we built it

The most-downloaded free plugin for DOT files in JetBrains IDEs, with about 154,000 downloads, hasn’t had a release since August 2024. We wanted a free DOT plugin that is maintained for current IDEs and shows a live preview without a separate Graphviz install.

We don’t undercut an independent developer who charges a fair price, so we checked for a paid alternative before we built. One exists, but it doesn’t appear in JetBrains Marketplace search, it publishes no price, and it doesn’t install on 2026.2. We checked the Marketplace on 2026-10-02 and keep checking it. If that changes, we’ll say so here.

Versions tested

The QA agent ran the release build in two IDEs: IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2 (build 252) and 2026.2 (build 262). No other versions and no other JetBrains IDEs were run.

Not covered by QA: IDE versions 2025.3 and 2026.1, IDEs other than IntelliJ IDEA, macOS and Windows (tested on Linux), display scaling above 1x, and a network capture.

QA verdict: SHIP

The QA agent was a separate Claude session, and didn’t build the plugin. It tested the exact file that was submitted, dot-studio-1.0.0.zip, SHA-256 2410ecac2c0df9e64e09e954b2e75ef87746cd392227bec0ab7f8a67012948f6, which matches the checksum on the GitHub release. It installed the plugin the way a user would, then drove the real IDE actions with a test harness.

The QA reports are internal and not published, so there is no link for the claims below. This section is summarised from our internal QA notes for the release candidate, dated 2026-10-02:

• No blockers and no major defects. The verdict was SHIP.
• Every area passed on both IDEs, in light and dark themes: file types, highlighting, error highlighting, folding, the Structure view, the live preview, all eight Graphviz layout engines, zoom and pan, theme switching, and SVG and PNG export. The fallback when the IDE’s embedded browser is turned off also passed, tested in one theme per IDE.
• Zero errors attributed to DOT Studio in the IDE log across all 17 test runs.
• The listing text matches what the plugin does. QA checked each claim in the store description against the build.
• Earlier problems were fixed first. The first QA pass found two blockers (an out-of-date description and a missing logo) and two major problems (no zoom or pan, and the 2025.2 uninstall issue below). The release candidate fixed the first three (zoom and pan were added; a layout-engine picker was dropped from scope, and you choose the engine with layout=). The fourth is a documented limitation.

Known limitations

On 2025.2, uninstalling after using the preview may need an IDE restart. The cause is two leaks in the 2025.2 platform itself, which we traced with a heap analysis before accepting it. Uninstalling without a restart works on 2026.2. Details: issue #26 (opened for an earlier leak in our own code, since fixed), pull request #33 and our coding standards, section 1.4.

• When a file holds more than one graph, only the first is previewed, because Graphviz renders only the first. The preview says so.
• Known minor issues, open:
  • the Structure view shows a multi-line ID with its raw line break (#30);
  • repainting a very large preview (a 3.4 MB SVG) can briefly stall the IDE while you type (#31);
  • labels in non-Latin scripts and emoji can slightly overlap their shapes (#32).

Launch targets, set before launch

We set these targets before release, so the results can’t move them. They count downloads of this release only, from the day the listing goes live.

Results

Not yet. The clock starts when JetBrains approves the listing. We’ll publish the day-14 and day-30 numbers here, whether we hit the targets or miss them.

Licence and source

• Licence: Apache-2.0.
• Source: github.com/acalebratliff/dot-studio.
• Bundled third-party components (viz-js, and Graphviz compiled to WebAssembly) are listed in the README, with their sources and checksums in third_party/viz-js/README.md. Their licence texts ship inside the plugin.
• Report a bug or ask for a feature: GitHub Issues.