IBM Bob Premium Package for i: three months of shipping, and why Understand matters
A look at Understand, a new application intelligence feature, plus a recap of everything shipped in the past three months for Premium Package for i.
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IBM Bob Premium Package for i: three months of shipping, and why Understand matters
IBM Bob Premium Package for i has been generally available for three months. This post covers Understand (a new application intelligence feature) and a recap of everything else shipped in the past three months.
Introducing Understand
An application knowledge base that gives Bob an accurate map of how every object in an IBM i application connects, so every question and change starts from facts, not guesswork.
Large IBM i applications have thousands of objects with complex dependencies: program calls, service program bindings, triggers, foreign keys. No single source member shows the full picture. Without a pre-built map, every architectural question means re-parsing raw source from scratch, burning tokens and time.
Understand fixes that. It runs a one-time scan against application libraries, pulling dependency data directly from IBM i. No source parsing required. The results are stored in a Db2 schema on the system and can be shared across development teams. Bob queries that schema instead of re-reading source on every prompt, which means faster answers, fewer Bobcoins spent, and responses grounded in facts rather than model inference.
What you can do with it
Understand your application. Ask what a program does, how it's built, or where specific functionality lives. Bob answers from scanned metadata (object types, bindings, file references, exports), not by parsing source line by line on every prompt.
Know the blast radius before you change anything. Ask what depends on any object before touching it. Understand traces both directions (callers and callees) and groups results by dependency type: file opens, program calls, static bindings, triggers, foreign keys, SQL views.
Plan modernization from data, not instinct. Understand buckets every program into Low, Medium, or High modernization effort based on OPM vs ILE, inbound dependency count, dynamic SQL usage, and last-used date. Dead code that hasn't run in over a year surfaces automatically.
Example questions
- "What breaks if I change CUSTMAST?"
- "How is ORDPROC built: which modules and service programs does it bind to?"
- "Which programs in the PAYROLL library haven't run in over a year?"
- "What are the high-level functions of this application?"
Getting started
The video below walks through the full setup flow and a live demo of the feature. Click the image to watch.
Also shipped in the last three months
Legacy RPG support in Business Rules Extraction. Coverage now extends to RPG II and RPG III. If your estate includes pre-RPGLE fixed-format programs, Bob can extract the business logic embedded in them. Extracting that logic is often the first step in modernization.
More deterministic tooling. New schema info and file info tools return precise Db2 object metadata without relying on model reasoning. A new DDS generation tool produces column-accurate, 80-column-safe DDS output. SQL is now prioritized over CL across all modes, which improves speed and consistency.
IWS skill for REST API administration. The new Integrated Web Services skill covers the full service lifecycle: create, deploy, start, stop, install, and uninstall, all through natural language. If you're exposing IBM i application functionality as REST endpoints, this skill handles the admin work.
COBOL for i skills. New skills cover COBOL generation, copybooks, subprograms, error handling, interactive applications, and report processing, extending the package to mixed IBM i estates where COBOL, RPG, CL, Db2, and DDS work together.
Db2 catalog skills and Index Advisor updates. New skills for working with Db2 SQL metadata and IBM i SQL services. Logical files added to the Index Advisor workflow, covering the full range of IBM i access paths in SQL performance analysis.
50+ fixes across two releases. Consistency, repeatability, security, and CVE fixes. DDS skill quality improved. Business Rules Extraction and RPG Modernization workflows optimized.
Review commands. New /Review_SQL and /Review_RPG commands provide a quick way to have Bob review code for correctness, best practices, and performance improvements.
IBM Bob Premium Package for i on-premises
IBM Bob Premium Package for i is now available with IBM Bob on-premises, for organizations that need to keep AI-powered development inside their own infrastructure.
How to get access
Premium Package for i is an add-on to a paid Bob base plan, not a separate download. How to try it depends on who you are:
- Individual plans (Pro, Pro+, Ultra). Go to bob.ibm.com and add the i package to your plan. If you already have a paid base plan, you can run the package free for one month; if you don't, pick up a paid base plan first, then start the free month on the package. Trial base plans can't use add-ons.
- Enterprise plans. Get a demo or start a PoC by reaching out to your IBM or Business Partner reps.
Get started
- Get entitled through the path above for your plan.
- Connect Bob to your IBM i.
- Pick one program nobody on the team fully understands and run the RPG Modernization workflow on it.
New to Premium Package for i? Setting up an agents.md for RPG applications walks through configuring Bob for an IBM i codebase before starting any work.