IBM Bob
by IBM
IBM's agentic coding IDE and CLI for governed Java, IBM i and mainframe modernization, now self-hostable and air-gapped
IBM Bob is an agentic software development platform from IBM, delivered as a desktop IDE (a VS Code fork) and the Bob Shell CLI. It is built for enterprises that need to modernize Java, IBM i (RPG, COBOL, CL) and IBM Z code under governance controls, and since September 2026 it can run self-hosted, including air-gapped.
IBM Bob is IBM's AI coding agent for the full software lifecycle: understanding, planning, building, testing, securing and modernizing code. It grew out of the "Project Bob" preview shown at IBM TechXchange in fall 2025 and became generally available on March 24, 2026, according to TechChannel, with IBM's formal launch announcement following on April 28, 2026. Developers work in a desktop IDE that TechChannel describes as a fork of VS Code, or in the Bob Shell CLI. A V2 release in June 2026 consolidated earlier modes into Ask (explain without changes), Plan (architecture and technical planning) and Agent (implementation), and added subagents, custom modes, skills, MCP integrations and parallel tool calling, with approval gates on edits, commands and MCP calls unless auto-approve is switched on. IBM routes tasks across several models and claims this cuts AI compute spend by about 40%, a vendor figure no independent source has tested. Paid Premium Packages add Java modernization, IBM i (RPG, COBOL, CL, SQL, DDS) and IBM Z mainframe support. On September 30, 2026 IBM made a self-hosted deployment generally available for on-premises, private, sovereign and air-gapped environments; at GA customers bring their own supported model, either NVIDIA Nemotron or Poolside Laguna run locally, or Claude Sonnet 5.0, Claude Opus 4.8, Gemini 3.7 Flash or OpenAI GPT 5.6 Sol through approved private connectivity. Usage is metered in Bobcoins, an abstraction over tokens. IBM-published customer results include Blue Pearl finishing a typical 30-day Java upgrade in about 3 days and MEDHOST expecting up to 50% less manual effort on some projects.
Heads of application development at regulated enterprises running large Java, IBM i or IBM Z estates who need an AI coding agent that can sit inside a controlled or air-gapped environment.
Legacy modernization work (Java upgrades, RPG and COBOL refactoring, documentation of undocumented logic) done by an agent with human approval gates, inside infrastructure the enterprise controls.
At a Glance
- Category
- Developer Tools
- Pricing
- Subscription, Usage-based, Contact for pricing
- Target Market
- CIOs, CTOs, Heads of Application Development, Enterprise Developers, Mainframe and IBM i teams
- Deployment
- Cloud-first, Self-hosted, Hybrid
- Team Size
- 500+
Key Features
- ✓Ask, Plan and Agent modes
Separate modes for read-only explanation, architecture planning and implementation, so teams can start with planning and keep the agent from editing code until they approve.
- ✓Bob Shell CLI
A terminal interface to the same agent, so developers can script and run Bob tasks outside the IDE in their existing shell workflows.
- ✓Self-hosted and air-gapped deployment
Generally available since September 30, 2026 for on-premises, private-cloud, sovereign and disconnected environments, with bring-your-own model licences.
- ✓Premium Packages for Java, IBM i and Z
Paid add-ons that teach the agent legacy languages and platforms such as RPG, COBOL, CL, DDS and mainframe workflows, including work against live IBM i environments.
- ✓Human approval gates
Edits, shell commands, MCP calls and skills require explicit approval unless auto-approve is enabled, which keeps a reviewer in control of every change.
- ✓Pooled Bobcoin budgets
Enterprise plans pool usage and set Bobcoin limits by team and user, giving finance and engineering leaders central control over AI coding spend.
- ✓In-IDE security review
Real-time vulnerability analysis during authoring and pull-request review, intended to catch issues before code reaches downstream pipelines.
Capabilities
Use Cases
- •Java uplift
Blue Pearl used Bob for a typical 30-day Java upgrade and finished in about three days, saving more than 160 engineering hours by IBM's account.
- •IBM i modernization
IBM i teams refactor fixed-format RPG and COBOL and regenerate tests while the agent works directly against live source members and application context.
- •Legacy system documentation
APIS IT used Bob to produce architecture analysis and documentation for a 20-year-old EGL system, which IBM reports was ten times faster than before.
- •Air-gapped development in regulated sectors
Banks, governments and defence suppliers run Bob on their own infrastructure with locally hosted Nemotron or Laguna models so source code never leaves the controlled network.
- •Healthcare software maintenance
MEDHOST's technology leadership told TechChannel it expects Bob to cut manual effort by up to 50% on certain projects with underdocumented logic.
Ideal For
Best For
- ✓Java version upgrades and framework migrations across large repositories
- ✓IBM i shops modernizing RPG, COBOL, CL and Db2 for i code against live environments
- ✓Regulated or sovereign-cloud organizations that cannot send source code to a public SaaS agent
- ✓Documenting and extracting business rules from decades-old, poorly documented systems
- ✓Teams that want centrally pooled AI budgets with per-team and per-user spend limits
Not Ideal For
- ✗Teams that want cloud-hosted remote agents running in isolated sandboxes; independent analysis notes Bob executes commands locally as child processes and has not shipped a remote-agent runtime
- ✗Buyers who need predictable per-task costs before purchase, since IBM does not publish how many tokens a Bobcoin buys
- ✗Greenfield web and startup teams with no legacy estate, where general-purpose coding agents such as Claude Code or Cursor have far larger practitioner communities
Deployment
Market Analysis
Pros
- ✓Rare depth on IBM i, COBOL, RPG and mainframe modernization
- ✓Self-hosted and air-gapped option for sovereign and regulated environments
- ✓Plan mode and approval gates suit cautious change processes
- ✓Published entry pricing from $20 a month with a 30-day trial
Cons
- ✗PromptArmor showed in January 2026, before GA, that a malicious README could trick Bob into downloading and running malware via allow-listed shell commands; IBM said it would remediate before release
- ✗Commands run locally as child processes without an OS or VM sandbox, and the SaaS edition needs constant HTTPS connectivity to IBM, per an independent profile
- ✗Bobcoin pricing is opaque because tokens per coin are unpublished
- ✗IBM has published no evaluations of Bob running on the self-hosted Nemotron or Laguna models and no GPU sizing guidance
Pricing
Trial
$0
- ✓30 days
- ✓50 Bobcoins
- ✓Core features
Pro
From $20/mo
- ✓50 Bobcoins
- ✓Agentic modes
- ✓Bob Shell CLI
- ✓Code explain, improve and review
Pro+
From $60/mo
- ✓180 Bobcoins
- ✓Same features as Pro
Ultra
From $200/mo
- ✓1,000 Bobcoins
- ✓Same features as Pro
Enterprise
Contact for pricing
- ✓Pooled Bobcoins with team and user limits
- ✓Seat and budget tracking
- ✓Enterprise SaaS or self-hosted deployment
Individual plans are listed per instance at $20, $60 and $200 a month (IBM calls the prices indicative and country-dependent) and include 50, 180 or 1,000 Bobcoins. TechChannel reported a Bobcoin was valued at $0.50 under the base package, and IBM does not publish how many tokens a coin buys, so cost per task has to be measured on a real repository. Java ($20) and IBM i ($40) packages are add-ons, with the first month free for new subscribers through December 31, 2026; IBM Z and all self-hosted deployments are priced by sales.
Security & Compliance
Sources
This page was written from 8 sources, 5 on domains other than ibm.com.
- 1.ibm.com — ai coding agentvendor
- 2.ibm.com — pricingvendor
- 3.ibm.com — ibm bob expands to self hosted environments for sensitive anvendor
- 4.newsroom.ibm.com — 2026 10 01 ibm introduces self hosted deployment for ibm bob
- 5.techchannel.com — ibm bob ga
- 6.rywalker.com — ibm bob
- 7.theregister.com — ibm bob vulnerability
- 8.itbrief.com.au — ibm bob gains self hosted deployment for enterprise ai
Stay Ahead of the Curve
Weekly enterprise AI insights for technology leaders. No spam, no vendor pitches—unsubscribe anytime.
SubscribeRelated Products
HackerRank Chakra
AI interviewer that runs hands-on technical interviews and scores how candidates work with AI
Unified.to
Real-time unified API and MCP server giving AI products and agents access to 1,000+ SaaS integrations
Autoheal
Self-improving AI agents for incident response, vulnerability fixes and release work after code is written
Momentic
Agentic QA platform that writes, runs and self-heals end-to-end tests for web and mobile apps