Project security

To prevent potential security risks, WebStorm lets you decide how to work with a project or a file if you are not sure about its source. WebStorm warns you about tasks, File Watchers or webpack configurations that will be executed and lets you configure sources that you can trust.

Open a project or a file from unknown sources

When you open a project that was created outside WebStorm and was imported into it, WebStorm displays a dialog where you can decide how to handle this project with unfamiliar source code.

When you open a project or a file for the first time, the IDE shows the Trust dialog. This helps to ensure that the project or the file is safe to perform the following actions:

Preview in Safe Mode: in this case, WebStorm opens the project in Safe Mode, meaning you can browse the project's sources, but there are restrictions on executing any tasks or scripts or running/debugging your project.
If you stay in Safe Mode, WebStorm will not show extra notifications for other potentially dangerous features in your project. For more information, refer to Safe Mode preview limitations.
WebStorm notifies you about Safe Mode on top of the editor area.
If at this point you want to trust a project, click the Trust project… link and load your project.
Alternatively, in the main menu, go to Navigate | Search Everywhere or press Shift twice to open the search window and type Trust project.
Trust Project: in this case, WebStorm opens and initializes the project, resolves project plugins, adds dependencies, and enables all WebStorm features.
Don't Open: in this case, WebStorm cancels the action.

Startup tasks

When you open a project created on a different machine, it might contain some scripts or tasks that are executed during the opening process. If such tasks are found, WebStorm displays a notification suggesting that the code you are about to execute might be harmful.

You can review what tasks will be executed and modify the settings.

Review the startup tasks

In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , go to Tools | Startup Tasks.
On the Startup Tasks settings page, you can review and modify the startup tasks.

Safe Mode preview limitations

If you open a project in Safe Mode, the following limitations will apply:

Startup tasks: any scripts or tasks that are executed during the opening process are disabled.
VCS support: VCS support is fully disabled.
File Watcher scripts will not wake up and run corresponding tools.
npm, pnpm, and yarn scripts will not be executed.
Database Tools and SQL: Database connections are disabled.

Trusted locations

You can configure what sources WebStorm should consider safe and accordingly load them and run File Watchers or webpack configurations without showing the notification.

You can add your home directory to the trusted locations to disable WebStorm's warnings about untrusted projects.

Configure trusted locations

In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , go to Appearance & Behavior | Trusted Locations.
On the Trusted Locations settings page, specify the local directories that the IDE should trust. Click OK to save the changes.
The next time you open a project from one of those locations, WebStorm will implicitly trust it.

04 November 2026