IBM Bob
Hi, I’m Bob! I’m here to work right alongside you in your codebase, and help you build quality software faster.
I can spawn focused agents and subagents that contribute to your code base. Each agent uses its own context, tools, and skills, to run work in parallel to handle long-running tasks in the background, and return only what matters. Faster answers. Clean context. Clearer results across even the largest projects.
With Literate Coding, forget context-switching between chat windows and your editor. Explain what you want in natural language and I will generate the implementation in context.
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I’m not confined to your IDE. With Bob Shell, I can help you work interactively, script repetitive tasks, and embed into your CI/CD pipeline across every stage of development.
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Track Bob’s contributions to your software delivery lifecycle across the entire enterprise. Drive agentic adoption, prove real business value, and optimize the costs through comprehensive analytics and insights with Bobalytics.
I accelerate transformation across your applications. With premium packages, I bring purpose-built modes, skills, and workflows for enterprise modernization, from upgrading Java applications to the latest versions, to mainframe and IBM i development.
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Connect to Red Hat, Instana, and more directly from your IDE. I eliminate context switching and bring enterprise-grade architecture, security, and monitoring right where you code.
Bob demonstrated a level of intelligence and contextual understanding that goes beyond anything I’ve seen in other tools.
M.R. Williams is advancing its IBM i modernization strategy with new mobile solutions and accounting system improvements, while leveraging IBM Bob to quickly interpret older RPG code, automate documentation, and streamline development workflows.
The tool works very well and captures the modernization intent. Bob is the first tool of its kind to treat Java as a first-class citizen
IBM Bob had a solid understanding of IoT development, including peripheral chips and devices, and was able to generate everything seamlessly from physical connections through to code. Bib is a highly reliable partner.
IBM Bob isn’t just another autocomplete tool. It is an AI-first development partner designed to transform the entire software lifecycle. Think of it as moving from ‘help me code’ to ‘help me modernize, secure, and scale.’
We leveraged BOB to modernise Java codebase from Java 11 to Java 25 and achieved an estimated ~90% faster delivery — 3 days vs. ~30+ days via a typical approach. The outcome was genuinely impressive and has opened multiple use cases for Blue Pearl to incorporate IBM BOB across our internal platforms as well as client engagements.
Early results are very promising: in under 15 minutes, I had a small FPS-style prototype up and running while walking my son through what Bob can do. That combination of speed and explainability is exactly what I’m looking for in an AI coding companion.
We use Bob for IBM i development, and one of its biggest strengths is its strong support for RPG and COBOL. Even with minimal instructions, it consistently gives spot-on answers, almost as if it can read between the lines.
Project Bob isn’t just another AI assistant. It’s an agentic AI development partner built for large organizations tackling complex challenges — like modernizing legacy systems, ensuring compliance (HIPAA, FedRAMP), or scaling secure software delivery.
Project Bob sounds so wonderfully innocent but it is incredibly powerful. 3 prompts. That’s all it took to build a production-ready MCP server. Project Bob blew my expectations out of the water. Bob delivers the kind of work you’d expect from an experienced developer who actually thinks about the full picture.
Bob has built-in guardrails. It operates in different modes, allowing you to approve its suggestions before any changes are made to your source code. If you ask it about a non-existent RPG op-code, it won’t “hallucinate” an answer; it will simply state that it doesn’t understand. This controlled, predictable behavior is crucial for enterprise development.
We built an application that processes video frames in parallel using OCR. By working closely with Bob, we were able to move smoothly from design to environment setup and deployment, resulting in significant improvements in both implementation accuracy and development speed.
When IBM Bob is given an RPG program, Bob is able to help us modernize it into our new java architecture quickly. IBM Bob reads and understands RPG code very well and was great for validating logic rewrites that have been done on multiple programs. It also adapted to our Java code architecture well, using predefined internal libraries and database connections.
We load all the course materials into Project Bob and work together to identify where students are likely to get stuck. It supports them throughout the process, from understanding the context to polishing their writing, which reduces back and forth and saves a lot of time.
Bob demonstrated a level of intelligence and contextual understanding that goes beyond anything I’ve seen in other tools.
M.R. Williams is advancing its IBM i modernization strategy with new mobile solutions and accounting system improvements, while leveraging IBM Bob to quickly interpret older RPG code, automate documentation, and streamline development workflows.
The tool works very well and captures the modernization intent. Bob is the first tool of its kind to treat Java as a first-class citizen
IBM Bob had a solid understanding of IoT development, including peripheral chips and devices, and was able to generate everything seamlessly from physical connections through to code. Bib is a highly reliable partner.
IBM Bob isn’t just another autocomplete tool. It is an AI-first development partner designed to transform the entire software lifecycle. Think of it as moving from ‘help me code’ to ‘help me modernize, secure, and scale.’
We leveraged BOB to modernise Java codebase from Java 11 to Java 25 and achieved an estimated ~90% faster delivery — 3 days vs. ~30+ days via a typical approach. The outcome was genuinely impressive and has opened multiple use cases for Blue Pearl to incorporate IBM BOB across our internal platforms as well as client engagements.
Early results are very promising: in under 15 minutes, I had a small FPS-style prototype up and running while walking my son through what Bob can do. That combination of speed and explainability is exactly what I’m looking for in an AI coding companion.
We use Bob for IBM i development, and one of its biggest strengths is its strong support for RPG and COBOL. Even with minimal instructions, it consistently gives spot-on answers, almost as if it can read between the lines.
Project Bob isn’t just another AI assistant. It’s an agentic AI development partner built for large organizations tackling complex challenges — like modernizing legacy systems, ensuring compliance (HIPAA, FedRAMP), or scaling secure software delivery.
Project Bob sounds so wonderfully innocent but it is incredibly powerful. 3 prompts. That’s all it took to build a production-ready MCP server. Project Bob blew my expectations out of the water. Bob delivers the kind of work you’d expect from an experienced developer who actually thinks about the full picture.
Bob has built-in guardrails. It operates in different modes, allowing you to approve its suggestions before any changes are made to your source code. If you ask it about a non-existent RPG op-code, it won’t “hallucinate” an answer; it will simply state that it doesn’t understand. This controlled, predictable behavior is crucial for enterprise development.
We built an application that processes video frames in parallel using OCR. By working closely with Bob, we were able to move smoothly from design to environment setup and deployment, resulting in significant improvements in both implementation accuracy and development speed.
When IBM Bob is given an RPG program, Bob is able to help us modernize it into our new java architecture quickly. IBM Bob reads and understands RPG code very well and was great for validating logic rewrites that have been done on multiple programs. It also adapted to our Java code architecture well, using predefined internal libraries and database connections.
We load all the course materials into Project Bob and work together to identify where students are likely to get stuck. It supports them throughout the process, from understanding the context to polishing their writing, which reduces back and forth and saves a lot of time.