Major changes

iTwin Studio and iTwin Studio for Developers consolidation

Version: 1.6.0 Release Date Beta: 2/6/2026 Release Date Production: 5/1/2026

As part of the effort to simplify our deliverables, we are merging iTwin Studio and iTwin Studio for Developers into a single deliverable.

What does this mean?

Instead of having two separate deliverables - iTwin Studio and iTwin Studio for Developers, only iTwin Studio Beta will remain. iTwin Studio will offer two runtime modes:

“standard mode”. Meant for product managers, demos and manual testing.
“developer mode”. Meant for active app development, offers all the capabilities that “iTwin Studio for Developers” offers today

Timeline

In early Q2 “iTwin Studio for developers” will be deprecated and will stop receiving updates. Timeline is subject to change and might be extended until we are sure that the new iTwin Studio allows seamless development experience.

There is currently no date set for deprecating “iTwin Studio for Developers” production edition.

Migration

To switch to iTwin Studio, app developers should take the following steps:

Install latest iTwin Studio
Enable developer mode
Uninstall your current iTwin Studio for Developers (see troubleshooting section for any issues)
Update your launch.json to point to iTwin Studio instead.

App developers can update their launch.json by running the following command from their workspace:

npx --registry=https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/bentleycs/_packaging/Packages/npm/registry/ @bentley/studio-cli helpers migrate-launch-json

or by making the following changes manually:

    {
      "name": "Launch Studio",
      "request": "launch",
      "runtimeExecutable": "iTwinStudioforDevelopers",
      "runtimeExecutable": "iTwinStudio",
      "outputCapture": "std",
      "killBehavior": "polite",
      "cascadeTerminateToConfigurations": [
        "Attach to Frontend",
        "Attach to Backend"
      ],
      "type": "node",
      "osx": {
        "runtimeExecutable": "/Applications/iTwinStudioforDevelopers.app/Contents/MacOS/iTwinStudioforDevelopers"
        "runtimeExecutable": "/Applications/iTwinStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/iTwinStudio"
      },
      "args": [
        "${workspaceFolder}/app.config.json",
        "--remote-debugging-port=9222",
        "-v",
        "--loadLocalApp=${workspaceFolder}"
        "--useMode=dev"
      ],
      "env": {
        "STUDIO_UTILITY_EXTRA_CLI_ARGS": "--inspect-brk=9232"
      },
      "presentation": {
        "hidden": true
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Attach to Backend",
      "type": "node",
      "request": "attach",
      "port": 9232,
      "pauseForSourceMap": true,
      "continueOnAttach": true,
      "restart": true,
      "presentation": {
        "hidden": true
      },
      "windows": {
        "resolveSourceMapLocations": [
          "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudio/v1-dev*/resources/app/backend-bundle/**/*.js"
          "https://*autoupdatecdn.bentley.com/itwindesktopplatform/standard*/**"
        ],
        "outFiles": [
          "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js",
          "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudio/v1-dev*/resources/app/backend-bundle/**/*.js"
          "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudio/v1*/resources/app.asar/backend-bundle/**/*.js",
// this is only needed in outFiles if resolveSourceMapLocations is not used
          "https://*autoupdatecdn.bentley.com/itwindesktopplatform/standard*/**"
        ]
      },
      "osx": {
        "outFiles": [
          "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js",
          "/Applications/iTwinStudioforDevelopers.app/Contents/Resources/app/backend-bundle/**/*.js"
          "/Applications/iTwinStudio.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/backend-bundle/**/*.js",
          "https://*autoupdatecdn.bentley.com/itwindesktopplatform/standard*/**"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "chrome",
      "request": "attach",
      "name": "Attach to Frontend",
      "port": 9222,
      "restart": true,
      "presentation": {
        "hidden": true
      },
      "pauseForSourceMap": true,
      "windows": {
        "outFiles": [
          "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js",
          "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudio/v1-dev*/resources/app/dist/**/*.js"
          "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudio/v1*/resources/app.asar/dist/**/*.js",
          "https://*autoupdatecdn.bentley.com/itwindesktopplatform/standard*/**"
        ]
      },
      "osx": {
        "outFiles": [
          "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js",
          "/Applications/iTwinStudioforDevelopers.app/Contents/Resources/app/dist/**/*.js"
          "/Applications/iTwinStudio.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/**/*.js",
          "https://*autoupdatecdn.bentley.com/itwindesktopplatform/standard*/**"
        ]
      }
    }

Troubleshooting

When you install an app, the created shortcut will target the same iTwin Studio edition and flavor that was used to install it. You can use the following command to recreate the shortcuts to target iTwin Studio:

iTwinStudio reset shortcuts

Note that this will recreate shortcuts for all currently installed apps, even if shortcut was previously deleted.

Studio Installation path change

Version: 1.1.0 Release Date: September 26, 2025

As a preparation to a few major new features in iTwin Studio (see upcoming changes), we had to refactor where various iTwin Studio flavors are installed on Windows.

Installation directory before:

- Bentley
  - iTwinStudio
    - iTwinStudio.exe
  - iTwinStudioForDevelopers
    - iTwinStudioForDevelopers.exe

Installation directory now:

- Bentley
  - iTwinStudio
    - v1
      - iTwinStudio.exe
    - v1-beta
      - iTwinStudio.exe
    - v1-dev
      - iTwinStudioforDevelopers.exe
    - v1-dev-beta
      - iTwinStudioforDevelopers.exe

The installation directory structure will continue to evolve as we introduce new features and major changes.

iTwin Studio will continue to be launched the same way as before, and existing shortcuts and start menu entries will not need any changes. However, app developers will need to update their launch.json configuration to ensure that VS Code can resolve iTwin Studio (and thus, iTwin.js framework) source maps.

App developers can update their launch.json by making the following changes manually:

{
  "name": "Attach to Backend",
  "type": "node",
  "request": "attach",
  "port": 9232,
  "pauseForSourceMap": true,
  "continueOnAttach": true,
  "restart": true,
  "presentation": {
    "hidden": true
  },
  "windows": {
    "outFiles": [
      "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js",
       "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudioforDevelopers/resources/app/backend-bundle/**/*.js"
       "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudio/v1-dev*/resources/app.asar/backend-bundle/**/*.js"
    ]
  },
  "osx": {
    "outFiles": [
      "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js",
      "/Applications/iTwinStudioforDevelopers.app/Contents/Resources/app/backend-bundle/**/*.js"
    ]
  }
},
{
  "type": "chrome",
  "request": "attach",
  "name": "Attach to Frontend",
  "port": 9222,
  "restart": true,
  "presentation": {
    "hidden": true
  },
  "pauseForSourceMap": true,
  "windows": {
    "outFiles": [
      "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js",
       "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudioforDevelopers/resources/app/dist/**/*.js"
       "${env:LocalAppData}/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudio/v1-dev*/resources/app.asar/dist/**/*.js"
    ]
  },
  "osx": {
    "outFiles": [
      "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js",
      "/Applications/iTwinStudioforDevelopers.app/Contents/Resources/app/dist/**/*.js"
    ]
  }
}

Upcoming changes

The following changes are currently planned for the near future:

Support for having iTwin Studio and iTwin Studio Beta installed at the same time
Installing iTwin Studio apps in %LocalAppData%/Programs/Bentley/iTwinStudio location