build: use full installer IDE for local dev (ZIP stays CI-only); bump 262 → 2026.2.1

[dividedmind]

Summary

Resolve the IntelliJ Platform IDE per environment: keep the cross-platform (multi-OS) ZIP on CI, but use the complete OS-specific installer for local development so runIde works on recent (2026+) builds. Also bump the 262 target to the released 2026.2.1.

Background

The build resolves the IntelliJ Platform as the multi-OS ZIP distribution (useInstaller = false), introduced so CI can cache one OS-agnostic IDE and share it across all runners. That's ideal for headless CI tests, but the ZIP is an incomplete runtime: it bundles no JBR and omits native components — notably JCEF and the 2026 platform-daemon. On 2026+ builds this breaks local runIde:

• JCEF: SEVERE - #c.i.u.j.StartupTest - Startup JCEF test is failed (because CefApp wasn't initialized)
• platform-daemon: NoSuchFileException: .../plugins/platform-daemon-plugin/jetbrainsd_linux_x86_64.tar.gz

Comparing an installer- vs ZIP-extracted IDE on disk confirmed the root cause: the installer ships a bundled jbr/ and the jetbrainsd_* daemon native; the ZIP ships neither. The JBR is resolved separately by Gradle (the OS-specific com.jetbrains:jbr artifact, kept in the Gradle cache, not the IDE cache), so it can't backfill the missing native components — only the installer is whole.

Changes

• useInstaller = !isCI for both the build platform and the plugin-verifier IDEs, so they stay consistent within each environment.
• Log the chosen artifact at configuration time (IntelliJ Platform IDE artifact: multi-OS ZIP (CI) / installer (local)), so the selection is visible in build output rather than silent.
• Bump 262 test/verify target to the released 2026.2.1.

Why this is safe on CI

• isCI keys on the CI environment variable, which GitHub Actions always sets to true and no workflow here overrides. CI continues to resolve the ZIP — no change to the IDE caching setup or the workflows.
• The plugin is compiled against the same platform API in either distribution, so buildPlugin / publishPlugin are unaffected.

Testing

• runIde verified locally on both 251 and 262 (2026.2.1): JCEF and the platform-daemon start correctly with the installer.
• Build script compiles; the config-time log prints once and reads installer (local) locally.

Note for developers

If you previously ran the ZIP locally, remove the stale ZIP-extracted IDE dir once so the installer re-populates (the managed-cache dir name is identical for both artifacts), e.g.:

rm -rf .intellijPlatform/ides/IU-2026.2.1

Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates the Gradle build to choose the appropriate IntelliJ Platform IDE distribution per environment (ZIP on CI for shared caching; OS installer locally for a runnable runIde on 2026+), and bumps the 262 IDE target to 2026.2.1.

Changes:

• Select IDE artifact via useInstaller = !isCI for both the build platform dependency and plugin verifier IDEs.
• Add a configuration-time lifecycle log indicating which IDE artifact type was selected.
• Bump gradle-262.properties IDE version from 2026.2.0.1 to 2026.2.1.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
build.gradle.kts	Switches IntelliJ Platform resolution between ZIP (CI) and installer (local) and logs the chosen artifact; aligns plugin verifier IDE selection with the same rule.
gradle-262.properties	Updates the IDE version used for 262 builds to 2026.2.1.

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