DbToo
An experimental, IBM-authored open-source SDK, publicly covered in August 2025, that lets RPG programs and Db2 for i data call out to AI models and external services such as watsonx, Ollama, and OpenAI-compatible endpoints. IBM's own documentation says the project is still in a bringup state and should not be deployed to production.
DbToo, published on GitHub as IBM/AI-SDK-Db2-IBMi, is an open-source software development kit created by a team led by IBM's Jesse Gorzinski and reported by IT Jungle on August 25, 2025. It compiles into an RPG-callable library named dbsdk_v1, is built with gmake, runs under PASE, and requires QIBM_DB_SECADM function usage authority to install. DbToo gives RPG applications and Db2 for i data a direct path to external AI and messaging services: a watsonx_generate function calls IBM watsonx's 8 billion parameter Granite 3 model, and the SDK also reaches Ollama, OpenAI-compatible endpoints such as llama.cpp, LM Studio, LocalAI and vLLM, Wallaroo, Kafka through Confluent, Slack, and Twilio SMS. IBM's documentation describes DbToo as an experimental SDK that is 'still in bringup state and should not be deployed to production.'
Related Terms
Db2 for i
The relational database management system built into every IBM i operating system, tightly integrated with IBM i rather than a separately installed database product.
RPG
Report Program Generator, the primary business application programming language on IBM i and its AS/400 predecessors, still running the majority of production logic in most IBM i shops.
watsonx
IBM's platform for AI and data, spanning watsonx.ai (foundation models and generative AI), watsonx.data (data store), and watsonx.governance (AI governance), with watsonx Assistant and watsonx Orchestrate built on top.
IBM Granite
IBM's family of open-weight foundation models, released under the Apache 2.0 license, that underpins watsonx.ai and serves as the base model fine-tuned for RPG and IBM i in watsonx Code Assistant for i and IBM Bob.
IBM i MCP Server
An open-source, IBM-published server implementing the Model Context Protocol (MCP), letting AI agents and LLMs query Db2 for i data and take defined actions on IBM i using natural language. In beta since October 2025.