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Updated at July 17, 2026   02:08 PM

Developing with an IDE

You can use IntelliJ IDEA as an IDE to develop and debug Lua applications for Tarantool.

  1. Download and install the IDE from the official web-site.

    JetBrains provides specialized editions for particular languages: IntelliJ IDEA (Java), PHPStorm (PHP), PyCharm (Python), RubyMine (Ruby), CLion (C/C++), WebStorm (Web) and others. So, download a version that suits your primary programming language.

    Tarantool integration is supported for all editions.

  2. Configure the IDE:

    a. Start IntelliJ IDEA.

    b. Click Configure button and select Plugins.

    ![image](./assets/ide_1.png)

    c. Click Browse repositories.

    ![image](./assets/ide_2.png)

    d. Install EmmyLua plugin.

    <info>Please don't be confused with `Lua` plugin, which is lesspowerful than `EmmyLua`.</info>![image](./assets/ide_3.png)

    e. Restart IntelliJ IDEA.

    f. Click Configure, select Project Defaults and then Run Configurations.

    ![image](./assets/ide_4.png)

    g. Find Lua Application in the sidebar at the left.

    h. In Program, type a path to an installed tarantool binary.

    By default, this is `tarantool` or `/usr/bin/tarantool` on mostplatforms.If you installed `tarantool` from sources to a custom directory,please specify the proper path here.![image](./assets/ide_5.png)Now IntelliJ IDEA is ready to use with Tarantool.
  3. Create a new Lua project.

    image

  4. Add a new Lua file, for example init.lua.

    image

  5. Write your code, save the file.

  6. To run you application, click Run -> Run in the main menu and select your source file in the list.

    image

    Or click Run -> Debug to start debugging.

    image