Use this workflow when a group of platform modules that currently live inside an aggregate Product DSL ModuleSet (typically essential, essentialMinimal, or ide.common) should become a standalone bundled plugin wrapper.

New canonical pattern: the wrapper is a hand-written JPS module placed next to the feature modules — not auto-generated under community/module-set-plugins/generated/. Auto-generation is being phased out; legacy wrappers stay in place until migrated. Reference example: community/platform/navbar/plugin/ (IJPL-245430, commit 9d61ae6803221).

Before Editing

Look at community/platform/navbar/plugin/ as the reference: a sibling plugin/ directory of the feature modules with its own .iml, resources/META-INF/plugin.xml, and plugin-content.yaml.
Decide whether the modules should still be inlined inside a parent module set in any product. Pluginized wrappers usually stop being emitted through the aggregate intellij.moduleSets.<name>.xml and become a bundled plugin instead.
For library modules with only a small closed consumer set, do not create or keep a shared wrapper just to make the library available. Prefer visibility="private" on the library descriptor and register the module as unnamed <content> in each consuming plugin, so each copy lives in that plugin's implicit private namespace.

Create the Wrapper Plugin Module

Create a new JPS module at <feature-root>/plugin/, e.g. community/platform/<feature>/plugin/:

intellij.platform.<feature>.plugin.iml under community/platform/ — resources-only JAVA_MODULE inheriting JDK; for example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<module type="JAVA_MODULE" version="4">
  <component name="NewModuleRootManager" inherit-compiler-output="true">
    <exclude-output />
    <content url="file://$MODULE_DIR$">
      <sourceFolder url="file://$MODULE_DIR$/resources" type="java-resource" />
    </content>
    <orderEntry type="inheritedJdk" />
    <orderEntry type="sourceFolder" forTests="false" />
  </component>
</module>

After creating the .iml, register it with the project-file helper instead of editing modules.xml by hand:

bun build/jps-module.mjs register community/platform/<feature>/plugin/intellij.platform.<feature>.plugin.iml --fix-iml-eof

resources/META-INF/plugin.xml — a minimal <idea-plugin> listing the content modules. Mirror the wrapper shape from navbar, but use the canonical platform plugin id for new wrappers (replace with the actual short name; the description must be at least 40 characters):

Update the Product DSL

Remove the now-pluginized modules from the aggregate ModuleSet:

In community/platform/build-scripts/src/org/jetbrains/intellij/build/productLayout/CommunityModuleSets.kt (and any product-specific layout file that listed them), delete the module("intellij.platform.<feature>.…") / embeddedModule(...) calls that the wrapper now owns.
Add the wrapper JPS module name to DEFAULT_BUNDLED_PLUGINS in community/platform/build-scripts/src/org/jetbrains/intellij/build/productLayout/ProductModulesLayout.kt, e.g. "intellij.platform.<feature>.plugin".
Add the wrapper JPS module name to HAND_WRITTEN_MODULE_SET_PLUGIN_MODULES in community/platform/build-scripts/product-dsl/src/ModuleSetPlugins.kt.
Check products that override or reset default bundled plugins (Rider's ReSharperExternalProductProperties, Gateway, JetBrains Client product-modules XML under remote-dev/, etc.) and add the wrapper module name where appropriate.

Do not create a new plugin("<feature>") DSL block under the old generator path. The wrapper exists as a standalone JPS module instead.

Re-trim Content Module Descriptors

Pluginization is a good moment to verify that each former direct module declares only the dependencies it really needs:

Trim intellij.platform.<feature>.<backend|frontend|monolith>.xml so it declares the actual runtime dependencies (e.g. intellij.platform.backend, intellij.platform.frontend, the shared intellij.platform.<feature> module).
If any extension point was renamed/qualified, grep the repo for the old short name and update every <extensionPoint …> reference accordingly.
If a downstream consumer used a module that the new wrapper now hides, switch the consumer's descriptor to depend on the wrapper plugin: <plugin id="intellij.platform.<feature>.plugin"/> instead of <module name="intellij.platform.<feature>.frontend"/>. Existing references to legacy com.intellij.moduleSet.<feature> ids stay valid for the auto-generated wrappers that have not yet been migrated.

Re-run Code Generation

After the source edits, run the generators so the platform descriptors, Bazel files, and .idea/modules.xml are updated to match:

bazel run //platform/buildScripts:plugin-model-tool
./build/jpsModelToBazel.cmd

Expected diffs:

community/platform/platform-resources/generated/META-INF/intellij.moduleSets.essential.xml, …ide.common.xml, and licenseCommon/generated/META-INF/intellij.moduleSets.ide.ultimate.xml no longer list the pluginized modules.
community/.idea/modules.xml and .idea/modules.xml gain the new intellij.platform.<feature>.plugin.iml module in helper-generated canonical order.
build/bazel-generated-file-list.txt and community/build/bazel-generated-file-list.txt gain the new plugin directory.
Product content snapshots (build/expected/ultimate-content-platform.yaml, dbe/build/datagrip-content.yaml, etc.) gain the wrapper plugin entry.
tests/ideaProjectStructure/testResources/com/intellij/ideaProjectStructure/fast/available-in-idea-free-mode.txt gains the new module if it is free-mode available.
Existing wrappers under community/module-set-plugins/generated/intellij.moduleSet.plugin.<name>/ are unrelated — do not touch them unless you are migrating one to the new pattern.

Fix Ordering Bugs When Validation Runs Before Generation

Hand-written wrappers usually do not hit the pre-generation-on-disk ordering trap, since the descriptor exists in source from the first build. The cache path remains relevant only for the legacy generated wrappers:

PluginContentCache injects PluginContentInfo objects for already-generated wrappers during the model-building stage. If you migrate one of those to the new pattern, drop the corresponding cache entry along with the generated directory.

Downstream Test Runtime Dependencies

Pluginization can break narrow test modules even when product packaging tests pass. Test runtime classpaths may still include a plugin module whose extracted platform dependency is no longer embedded. Catch this from idea.log, not from test assertion text alone.

Inspect Plugin set resolution and Problems found loading plugins in local or TeamCity test logs.
Treat messages such as missing intellij.platform.structureView.impl, intellij.platform.execution.serviceView, or intellij.platform.navbar.frontend as a missing wrapper-plugin runtime dependency (intellij.moduleSet.plugin.structureView, intellij.moduleSet.plugin.servicesView, or the new intellij.platform.<feature>.plugin).
Add the wrapper dep only to the affected test module with scope="RUNTIME". Do not add it to broad shared modules such as intellij.platform.testFramework or aggregate/global test infrastructure.
After changing .iml, run ./build/jpsModelToBazel.cmd and verify the generated BUILD.bazel runtime deps are updated.
For TeamCity, read the published test log artifact when needed: /app/rest/builds/id:<buildId>/artifacts/content/testlog.zip!.../idea.log.

Pre-TeamCity Canary Suite

Run this suite before relying on TeamCity after pluginization or plugin dependency changes. Run the listed commands in parallel when resources allow; the order is diagnostic priority, not execution order. Fix failures in checks 1-6 before interpreting downstream canary failures.

Embedded dependency closure: ./bazel.cmd run //platform/buildScripts:plugin-model-tool -- --json='{"filter":"embeddedDependencyClosure","pluginSourceOnly":true}'
Product DSL module-set validation: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.platform.buildScripts.productDsl.tests --test org.jetbrains.intellij.build.productLayout.validator.ProductModuleSetValidatorTest
Fast project structure/root packages: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.projectStructureTests --test com.intellij.ideaProjectStructure.fast.IntelliJProjectPackageNamesTest
Product packaging baseline: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.idea.ultimate.build.tests --test com.intellij.idea.ultimate.build.smokeTests.AllProductsPackagingTest
CLion packaging baseline: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.clion.build.tests --test org.jetbrains.intellij.build.clion.CLionPackagingTest
Rider packaging baseline: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.rider.build.tests --test com.jetbrains.rider.build.RiderPackagingTest
Database and SQL plugin loading: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.database.tests --test com.intellij.database.DataGripLiteSuite ./tests.cmd --module intellij.database.sql.tests --test com.intellij.sql.SqlFileStructureViewTest ./tests.cmd --module intellij.database.sql.tests --test com.intellij.sql.editor.SqlMultiLineTodoTest
Code Server DB plugin loading: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.codeServer.db.sql.tests --test com.intellij.database.SqlCompletionTest ./tests.cmd --module intellij.codeServer.db.csv.datagrid.tests --test com.intellij.codeServer.db.csv.datagrid.tests.CsvCoreGridTest
Package Checker plugin loading: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.packageChecker.tests --test com.intellij.packageChecker.model.VulnerabilitiesRepositoryServerTest
Grazie and spellchecker plugin loading: ./community/tests.cmd --module intellij.grazie.tests --test com.intellij.grazie.spellchecker.inspector.SuggestionTest ./community/tests.cmd --module intellij.grazie.tests --test com.intellij.grazie.spellchecker.inspection.CommentsWithMistakesInspectionTest
Shell plus Markdown plugin loading: ./community/tests.cmd --module intellij.sh.tests --test com.intellij.sh.highlighting.ShHighlightUsagesInMarkdownTest
Ruby plugin loading: ./tests.cmd --module intellij.ruby.tests --test org.jetbrains.plugins.ruby.gem.GemsProviderTest ./tests.cmd --module intellij.ruby.tests --test org.jetbrains.plugins.ruby.ruby.psi.RubyHeredocInjectorTest#testSqlHeredoc

Verification

Run lint_files() on every changed Kotlin source and test file.
Run the Pre-TeamCity Canary Suite after generated files and narrow test dependencies are updated.
Keep CLion and Rider packaging tests in the standard suite: wrapper plugins and DEFAULT_BUNDLED_PLUGINS changes can affect those product baselines even when AllProductsPackagingTest is green.
Run at least one representative test from each affected test module via ./tests.cmd --module <module> --test <FQN or FQN#method>. Prefer a small smoke test that exercises plugin loading without external fixtures.
If the original CI test needs unavailable data or services, run a nearby smoke test and document the local blocker. Confirm idea.log no longer reports the original missing wrapper plugin.
Re-render the skill mirrors:

node community/.ai/render-guides.mjs

The renderer copies this file to community/.claude/skills/module-set-pluginization/SKILL.md, .agents/skills/module-set-pluginization/SKILL.md, .claude/skills/module-set-pluginization/SKILL.md, and .junie/skills/module-set-pluginization/SKILL.md. Confirm git status shows only this source file and those generated mirrors diverging.

name	module-set-pluginization
description	Convert Product DSL module sets into bundled wrapper plugins.