Browsing Azure Blob Storage from IntelliJ

Updated 18 August 2026

You are in the IDE, and you want to see what is in a container without switching to a browser or a desktop app. There are three ways to do it.

1. Microsoft's Azure Toolkit

The official plugin covers a lot of Azure — app services, functions, virtual machines, and storage among them. If you deploy from the IDE, it is the one to have. Two things to know before installing: it signs in through the interactive Azure flow, and it enumerates your subscriptions when it connects, which on a large tenant is noticeable at startup.

2. The az CLI in the IDE terminal

az storage blob list --account-name <account> --container-name <container> --output table

No plugin, no extra process. It is the right answer for a one-off check. It is a poor fit for walking a folder tree, because every level is another command.

3. A dedicated blob plugin

A plugin that only reads blob storage is a much smaller thing: attach an account with a key, walk containers like folders, preview a file. That is the shape of ours, listed below. It does not deploy anything and does not manage other Azure resources — if you need those, you want the official toolkit.

What to check before installing any IDE plugin

• Does it declare an upper IDE build limit? If it does, the next IDE update switches it off. The plugin's Versions tab shows the compatibility range.
• Does it do anything at IDE startup? Plugins that reach out to a cloud provider when the IDE opens make startup slower and can throttle your account's endpoints.
• Where does it keep your credential? An access key belongs in the IDE password safe, not in a project settings file that gets committed.

Testing without an Azure account

Microsoft ships Azurite, a free local emulator for Blob, Queue, and Table storage. It needs no Azure account and no card:

npm install azurite
npx azurite-blob --location ./azurite-data --blobPort 10000

Point your tool at http://127.0.0.1:10000 with the account name devstoreaccount1 and the well-known development key from Microsoft's Azurite documentation. It is the cheapest way to see whether a tool does what you need before you attach anything real.