bb: An Open-Source 'IDE That Builds Itself'

The open-source IDE bb by @sawyerhood (MIT, getbb.app) allows agents to rewrite and extend the interface via a Plugin SDK and prompts, with all UI functionality mirrored in the CLI, SDK, and HTTP API.

Compiled by Sergey KostenchukPublished 2026-09-30Updated 2026-09-30

2026-09-30 Coding Anthropic

🛠 bb: An Open-Source 'IDE That Builds Itself'

The author of the Tips AI channel, who has been using Orca (Stably AI) for a long time, broke down bb by @sawyerhood in a September 21 stream: it looks like Codex, but the interface consists of TypeScript components and plugins that agents rewrite via prompts. Everything in the UI is available in the CLI (bb spawn, bb pool), SDK, and HTTP API. It has 4.0k stars on GitHub, with release 0.44.0 from September 25, 2026.

🌍 The ADE space is forming quickly: Orca and bb are two answers to the question of what an IDE should be when agents do the work. The architectural novelty is the Plugin SDK (app.slots, aiServices, sidebarHeader, sendMenu), which is open under the MIT license, with code at github.com/get-bb/bb.

👤 Free: build for macOS Apple Silicon from getbb.app or npx bb-app@latest, panel at http://localhost:38886 (Linux AppImage in alpha, Windows via WSL2). The HTTP server has no authentication — use only on a trusted network or Tailscale; telemetry: BB_TELEMETRY=false.

Source 1: https://getbb.app/ Source 2: https://github.com/get-bb/bb

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