Draft:IBM Bob
AI coding tool
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
IBM Bob (also known as Project Bob) is an AI-assisted software development tool developed by IBM. It is available as a Visual Studio Code extension and a command-line interface, and targets enterprise software development environments. IBM announced the product in October 2025; it reached general availability in March 2026.
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Comment: Some LLM cues exist. Promo concerns were also noted - needs review for factuality and neutrality. Pricing table probably doesn't belong. ASUKITE 00:55, 26 April 2026 (UTC)
 | This is a draft article. It is a work in progress open to editing by anyone. Please ensure core content policies are met before publishing it as a live Wikipedia article. Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL Last edited by User97104 (talk | contribs) 20 hours ago. (Update)
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| IBM Bob | |
|---|---|
| Developer | IBM |
| Initial release | March 24, 2026 |
| Stable release | 1.0
/ March 24, 2026 |
| Operating system | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Platform | Visual Studio Code, Command-line interface |
| Type | AI assistant, Integrated development environment, Software development tool |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | bob |
Background
IBM Bob succeeded earlier IBM AI coding products, including Watsonx Code Assistant for System Z mainframe and Code Assist for RPG, developed at IBM's Rochester laboratory. IBM consolidated these into a single platform following advances in AI handling of RPG (Report Program Generator), a programming language associated with IBM midrange and mainframe systems.[1]
History
IBM publicly introduced Project Bob at IBM TechXchange 2025 on October 7, 2025.[2] At announcement, IBM stated that over 6,000 of its internal developers were already using the tool, with IBM reporting an average internal productivity improvement of 45%.[3]
In November 2025, IBM announced that the product had entered a preview stage.[3]
IBM Bob 1.0 reached general availability on March 24, 2026, released as a Visual Studio Code plug-in and SaaS offering.[4]
Architecture
IBM Bob uses a multi-model approach, selecting from several large language models (LLMs) depending on task and context:[5]
- IBM Granite - IBM's proprietary foundation models
- Anthropic Claude
- Meta Llama
- Mistral AI
IBM announced a partnership with Anthropic at the time of Bob's introduction, stating that Anthropic's models would be integrated into IBM software products starting with Bob.[5]
Bob supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling integration with third-party tools and services.[6]
Features
Bob operates as both an IDE extension and a command-line tool (BobShell), coordinating AI agents across code generation, testing, documentation, and deployment tasks.
Bob embeds security scanning into development workflows, including shift-left vulnerability scanning, FedRAMP hardening support, and quantum-safe cryptographic migration assistance.[5]
Supported programming languages include RPG, COBOL, CL, Java, Python, and SQL.[3] Enterprise integrations include Red Hat OpenShift, HashiCorp, and Instana. Deployment options include SaaS and on-premises configurations.
See Also
- IBM Watson
- IBM i
- GitHub Copilot
- Amazon CodeWhisperer
- Anthropic Claude
- IBM Granite