I&#x27;ve been developing a Play app in IntelliJ for the past year. When run in development mode ($ activator run) it recompiles only the necessary files when you make a change, save, and reload the page in the web browser. I can even switch branches to another developer&#x27;s work and don&#x27;t have to restart the server. I&#x27;m not sure what you&#x27;re talking about. Maybe you have something set up incorrectly.