Get Started with Pieces for JetBrains & plugin FAQs
Tags: devops, tooling, programming, productivity
Published: 2023-03-20 19:37:00

Start using the Pieces for Developers JetBrains plugin to save, enrich and reuse your code to reduce productivity bottlenecks and stay in your workflow. Below are the most common questions about getting started with Pieces, some frequently asked questions, and troubleshooting tips.

## What all is being installed?
1. Pieces for Developers | OS Server is our background service that runs offline and on-device. It's required to enable:

- Individual products in the Pieces for Developers Suite to communicate
- Local, Private, and Secure Machine Learning Models
- Real-Time Search and Suggestions

2. Pieces for Developers | Flagship Desktop App
The core Pieces for Developers experience fully loaded with over 50+ features and awesomely extended with our JetBrains plugin and Chromium-based Browser Extensions.

3. Pieces for Developers | JetBrains Plugin
Our most popular IDE extension that enables you to search, save, and share code snippets, screenshots, and other resources directly from within your IDE.

## Getting Started with Pieces for Developers on macOS
_Compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina or higher_
1. Download the Pieces for Developers Package Installer and proceed with the installation.

- This will install the Pieces for Developers ⎸ Flagship Desktop App as well as Pieces for Developers | OS Server

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/hwdmcnaks905sj8rdbtq.png)

2. Make sure Pieces for Developers | OS Server is running in the background.

3. Launch your JetBrains IDE and install the Pieces for Developers | JetBrains plugin
- If you have already installed our JetBrains plugin and it's having trouble connecting the Pieces for Developers | OS Server background service, try the following some quick Troubleshooting Solutions

## Getting Started with Pieces for Developers on Windows
_Compatible with Windows 10 Version 1809 or higher_
1. Download our Pieces for Developers Installation Manager and proceed with the installation.
- This will install the Pieces for Developers ⎸ Flagship Desktop App as well as Pieces for Developers | OS Server

2. Make sure Pieces for Developers | OS Server is Running in the Background.

3. Launch your JetBrains IDE and install our Pieces for Developers | JetBrains plugin
- If you have already installed our JetBrains plugin, and it's having trouble connecting the Pieces for Developers | OS Server background service try the following quick Troubleshooting Solutions

## Getting Started with Pieces for Developers on Linux
_Compatible with Ubuntu 18 or higher and is currently in beta_
1. From the Snapcraft Store install the Pieces for Developers | OS Server Snap Package or run the following in your terminal:

`$ sudo snap install pieces-os`

2. Enable Offline and On-Device Local Machine Learning by running the following command in the terminal:

`$ sudo snap connect pieces-os:dotnet-runtime-aspnetcore`

- This command sets up and configures local application interfaces to properly load our Sandboxed and Secure Machine Learning Model

3. Launch the Pieces for Developers | OS Server background service by running the following command in the terminal:
`$ pieces-os`

4. Launch the Pieces for Developers | Flagship Desktop App by running the following command in the terminal:
`$ pieces-for-developers`

5. Launch your JetBrains IDE and install our Pieces for Developers | JetBrains plugin
- If you have already installed our JetBrains plugin, and it's having trouble connecting the Pieces for Developers | OS Server background service, try the following quick Troubleshooting Solutions.

[Watch our Getting Started ⎸ Pieces for Developers | JetBrains plugin overview video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8S3URf7MLE)

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/scmjvz8yiokdkpzmmd64.png)

## Troubleshooting
### Solving Common Connectivity Issues
If your Pieces for Developers | JetBrains plugin is having trouble connecting to Pieces for Developers | OS Server, try to restart Pieces for Developers | OS Server and then your JetBrains IDE and try again.

If the issue persists, try clicking the Refresh button at the top of the List View to re-attempt the connection. If that still fails, don't hesitate to contact us at support@pieces.app or fill out this form.

## Frequently Asked Questions
**Why don't I see the snippet I just saved in the list view in my editor?**
- Go to the Pieces side bar tab and open the side bar. At the top of the indow, click the refresh icon and your snippets will refresh and newly added snippets will be viewable by expanding its respective language classification.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/o392vrpnu6a0sdc4tsey.png)

**I'm in JetBrains and I keep getting the notification "Can't Connect to Pieces OS". What do I do?**
- Restart Pieces OS. After a couple of seconds re-open JetBrains.

**How are my snippets suggested in the snippet treeview?**
- Similar to the Pieces for Developer's "filter by suggested" view, The Pieces for JetBrains Suggested Snippet List-View returns a list of existing snippets that are perceived relavent to the users current flow.
- It's important to understand that these suggested snippets are Pieces for Developers, resurfaced existing snippets in the repository. The suggested snippet view does not suggest new snippets but instead resurfaces relavent snippets that were already saved to Pieces for Developers.

**What is Pieces OS? How does it work?**
- Pieces OS is the background service that enables Pieces to work locally and handles communications with any integrations. Without Pieces OS, Pieces for Developers will not be able to save your snippets or interact with any of your plugins.

- Pieces OS also enables you to sync Pieces to the cloud so that you can access your data anywhere. It also enables our other cloud-enabled features, like link sharing. Download and install Pieces OS! Head over to https://code.pieces.app/install to get started.

**How do I share a snippet from my JetBrain IDE?**
- To share a snippet you must be connected to Pieces OS and logged in and connected to the cloud. Then click the Pieces extension icon to see the snippet tree view and click inside Pieces explorer to find your saved snippets. Right-click the snippet you'd like to share and select "share via Pieces link". Then copy the shareable link and send to anyone!

**How do I connect to the Pieces Cloud from JetBrains?**
- Sign in using a personal email. Upon successful sign-in, your account will begin to connect to the Pieces cloud. If you don't get a pop-up confirming a successful connection to the Pieces cloud in your IDE, find the connect to Pieces cloud primary sidebar location, if you're connected to Pieces Cloud the status will read "Connected" with a green dot and if it's not connected to Pieces Cloud, the status will read "Disconnected" with a red dot. Click the disconnected cloud icon to the right of the status to reconnect to Pieces cloud.

## Connect with our team and Get 1:1 Support