Glossary

Bob Premium Package for i

Premium Package for i

The IBM i-specific add-on to IBM Bob, generally available June 24, 2026. It gives Bob about 40 skills and workflows and about 30 tools that work directly against QSYS, the IFS, CL, SQL and Db2 for i on a live system.

Generally availableJune 24, 2026

Skills and workflowsAbout 40

IBM i toolsAbout 30

Reported price$20 to $40 a month on top of Bob

Why it matters

This add-on is what turns IBM Bob into an IBM i product, rather than a general coding agent that knows some RPG. It shipped the same day as Bob 2.0.

What the skills do

Explain a program
Convert fixed-format RPG to free-format
Refactor a monolith
Generate RPG, CL, COBOL or DDS
Write documentation
Produce unit tests

What the tools can touch on a live system

Read and write source members in QSYS
Read and write files in the IFS
Run CL commands and SQL statements
Launch a 5250 session
Manage the library list
Run a retrieval-augmented generation workflow

Two new modes

Developer ModeIBM i language know-how across RPG, COBOL, DDS, SQL and CL.
Db2 for i Database ModeSQL tuning with error checking. It is the first time IBM has put an AI assistant on Db2 for i query work.

Related Terms

IBM Bob (Project Bob)

IBM's generally available AI coding agent for IBM i, built as a fork of Visual Studio Code and tuned for RPG, CL, DDS, and SQL. Reached GA on March 24, 2026; Bob 2.0 and the IBM i-specific Bob Premium Package for i shipped June 24, 2026.

Build with Bob

An option added to watsonx Orchestrate's Create an agent dialog in the August 2026 release, listed by IBM as a preview, that launches IBM Bob into a workspace wired to your Orchestrate tenant to generate agents, tools and workflows from natural language.