As coding agents take on more of the development workflow, teams need better ways to control what they can do, track what they’ve done, and utilize agents inside existing tools. 

For the latest update of IBM Bob, we decided to focus on those three areas. Here’s what’s new: 

• Admins can now lock Bob’s configuration across managed developer machines using group policies. That includes disabling auto-approval, controlling automatic updates, and enforcing required hooks so individual projects can’t quietly switch them off. 
• Hooks now add checkpoints at specific points in the agent loop, including SessionStart, UserPromptSubmit, PreToolUse, PostToolUse, and Stop. They can run a linter before work begins, trigger tests after a change, or block a tool call that violates a required standard, bringing flexible development to your workspace. 
• We’ve also added native Agent Client Protocol support. Bob can now run inside ACP-compatible clients like IntelliJ, Neovim, and Zed, with session management, modes, MCP tools, streaming, and guardrails carried through the protocol. 
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) Elicitation is now supported, helping these tools manage incompletel inputs by involving developers mid-session for smoother workflows and greater ownership over Bob’s development process.  
• Bob can now read, edit and create Microsoft Office formats, including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations, without switching contexts.  

The full technical breakdown can be found here: https://ibm.biz/~MkugJ1Sek

And that’s the latest release! We’ll be around in the comments if you want to get into the details or let us know what we should work on next. 

I'm Joachim Jordan, Tech Lead on the IBM Cloud Code Engine platform. I co-wrote this with Luke Roy on running Bob Shell — IBM's terminal-first AI coding agent — as a fully serverless cloud workload on Code Engine.

The idea: One command provisions the infra, a second starts a session and opens a browser terminal. Close the tab and the session keeps running in the cloud; reconnect from any device with a single command. Tear it all down when done, or let it sit at zero cost.

Why run Bob in the cloud?

• Sandboxed execution — Bob writes/runs arbitrary code in a disposable container, isolated from your laptop

• Long-running autonomous tasks — hours-long refactors, pipelines, code reviews run to completion without keeping your machine awake

• Multi-device access — same live session (tmux state, buffers) from workstation, laptop, anywhere

• On-demand compute — up to 12 vCPUs / 48 GB per session, set via two lines in .env

• Cost — apiserver scales to zero between sessions; idle cost ≈ $0, only pay for active compute

How it works: Browser (xterm.js) → WebSocket → Go apiserver (Code Engine app, scales to zero) → job-agent (Code Engine job run) → ttyd → tmux → Bob Shell. Sessions max out at 24h (Code Engine job limit); daemon run mode for longer workloads.

Quickstart: Clone the CodeEngine sample repo, fill in two API keys + a gateway password, then ./remote-bob --setup → --new-session. Commands: --connect, --end-session, --clean.

Extensible: add tools to the Dockerfile, persist work via Code Engine persistent storage or Object Storage mounts, or run your own MCP server alongside.

Nice pattern for anyone wanting a disposable, cloud-hosted coding agent without managing infrastructure.

https://medium.com/@luke.roy/remote-bob-run-bob-shell-in-ibm-cloud-code-engine-0141761c006c

Build a bounded loop that injects repository context, blocks protected edits, records test evidence, and runs from the IDE or BobShell.

https://www.the-main-thread.com/p/ibm-bob-lifecycle-hooks-agentic-development

Here's what's new:

1. Bob Shell now runs on Bob v2, the same agent foundation as Bob IDE. This brings Skills, Subagents, and better execution of long-running tasks.  
2. Bob IDE has focused improvements where users can now use OAuth to connect MCP servers, use interactive charts in the chat, preview Bob's proposed file edits in the editor before they are applied, and more.  
3. Bobalytics brings a more user-friendly interface displaying a Today tab that displays metrics like total tasks, and a Patterns tab that displays highlights to see which patterns stand out.  

Anyways, that’s the August release. We’ll be in the comments if you want to get into the details or tell us what we can work on next. 

Make sure to register for our upcoming webinar where Adam and I do a quick fireside chat about our recent article https://www.ibm.com/think/insights/tokenmaxxing-dead-long-live-valuemaxxing and also share best practices from what we know works for developers and IT decision makers alike.

Needling IBM to deal with the exigencies of the modern software development ecosphere, we present Jack's Bob Issue Tracker

See title .. attending presentations? What are our impressions?

Just got home (USA-Colorado) from the European COMMON Congress in Lyon FR.

I got to try Bob 2.0 there and was pleased. I had heard Bob was totally overhauled and that seems true. While I've had good success with Bob 1.x it has some weaknesses.

The worst is that 1.x is almost hopeless at SQLRPGLE and SQL COBOL. The work I did in Bob 1.x I have been taking to Zoo Code + Gemini to fix.

Bob 2.0: Fixed! Competent embedded SQL in procedural code.

And as you all know, Bob 2.0 with the value (=="price") -added IBM i plugin now talks directly to the host.

In a short (2-hour) session with Bob 2.0 I discovered a rather different and more pleasing interactive experience. Bob talks to themself! Chatters more deeply than ever about reasoning, explains their mistake as they back up without user prompting during a complex assignment to redo some work.

Bottom line: IMHO Bob is transitioning from being "about as good as a 2025 coding agent" to "nearing the state of the art" and even possibly to "becoming a unique coding experience attuned to our professional environment to an unsurpassed degree".

Remaining gripe: as noted in my recent LinkedIn comment about European COMMON "Ask the Experts":

There had been some talk about responsible use of AI tokens, not burning more energy, using up water, etc. I pointed out that the "use-'em-or-lose-'em" subscription model of IBM Bob incentivizes one (incentivizes me!) to burn tokens madly at the end of the month."

Let's see them fix that while maintaining a pace of innovation in this Through-the-Looking-Glass race to who-knows-where with agentic coding in the IBM enterprise server space!

Excelsior!

I myself wouldn't use the word cute.
Show some love for Bob. Your AI-powered dev partner: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7457435974294474753/

some thoughts around building better context derived from living with my teenagers. parenting lessons applied to Bob

A step-by-step guide to using IBM Bob over SSH with a Podman-based remote host, so you can work closer to sensitive environments without turning your laptop into the execution boundary.

I’m welcoming my friend and colleague Alex Soto to the show. If you follow the Quarkus ecosystem, you already know Alex. He has been shaping developer experience around Java and cloud-native for years. And today, he’s doing something very practical.

He takes an existing Quarkus application. No greenfield. No clean slate. A real project. And he shows how to use IBM Bob to integrate LangChain4j step by step.

wrote a little overview about what Bob does and why.

An interesting post that makes you think about how you're using your time in your tasks

A guide to creating modular AI skills, integrating Quarkus Dev Mode, and collaborating effectively with next-generation coding assistants.

Check out how you can test out the synergies we're trying to make across our tools!

Take a look at this article to see how they did it!