Thank god they got rid of the disgusting looking sidebars, and the corner radius looks much better, too. Two things I hated on day one, and never got used to.

HUH? Don't the same people own it?

They fixed the weird looking sidebars. I'm happy.

JetBrains launches Rider 2026.2 EAP 5, bringing several AI improvements by David Uzondu JetBrains has released the fifth EAP version of Rider 2026.2, bringing a faster startup flow with the new non-modal startup screen and quality-check hooks for Claude Code and Codex. In the latest EAP release, Rider now has newly bundled "quality-check" hooks that run background tests on code edits before the external agent proceeds. For example, after Claude Code rewrites a class, Rider immediately triggers a PostToolUse hook that analyzes the code for syntax errors and formatting warnings. It then passes those findings back to the model as feedback, allowing the agent to fix its own output before finalizing the task. If Rider detects compilation errors, the IDE prevents the agent from treating the task as complete, while minor formatting warnings simply help guide the model toward better output. The "Explain with AI" feature can now tackle tricky build errors directly from the console, helping .NET developers who frequently wrestle with multi-targeting failures and MSBuild errors. JetBrains introduced Explain with AI back in the 2024.1 release cycle. With this feature, instead of forcing developers to copy long diagnostics into a separate chat window, Rider now lets you trigger these explanations directly from the error source. In similar EAP news, JetBrains recently opened the first EAP for IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2, with features that appeal to both those who are into AI-assisted coding and those who prefer "classic" manual development. For manual developers, the release adds revamped dependency completion for Maven and Gradle build scripts, which pulls data directly from the local cache to suggest relevant versions. It also brings the Spring Debugger update, displaying security indicators next to endpoints to visualize secured routes during runtime. In addition to database migration tools for Flyway and Liquibase, this build introduces a Hibernate debugger that shows the exact SQL or HQL queries that the framework plans to execute, letting developers jump directly to the Java code that triggered them.