bb

bb is an agentic IDE that builds itself. It can control, customize, and automate itself, laying the groundwork for your own software factory.

Every surface — the desktop app, web app, CLI, and HTTP API — is a first-class way to drive bb. Work runs in threads you can follow live, steer at any point, or hand off to another agent.

[!NOTE] bb is in active development. Core architecture is stable, but workflows and surfaces are still evolving.

Use bb

Download the desktop app

The recommended way to start using bb is the desktop app:

Download the latest desktop app

The desktop app supports macOS on Apple Silicon (arm64). The Linux x64 AppImage is alpha: expect problems, and please report them. Intel Mac users should run bb with npx instead. On Windows, run bb inside WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux): install WSL2 first, then run the same npx command below from your WSL2 (Linux) shell. Native Windows PowerShell and CMD are not supported.

Early adopters can install bb Nightly alongside the stable desktop app. It has a separate application identity, yellow icon, and auto-update feed.

Or run it anywhere with npx

npx bb-app@latest

Then open http://localhost:38886.

To run the newest automated build instead:

npx bb-app@nightly

bb uses the provider CLI you already have authenticated.

For install requirements, provider setup, configuration, and package-focused docs, start with packages/bb-app.

Telemetry

Production runs (the desktop app and npx bb-app) send anonymous usage telemetry (app starts, thread creation counts, and user message counts) to help us understand adoption. Identification is a random per-install id stored in your data dir — no user, host, project, workspace, or message content is ever attached. Development/source runs never send. Opt out any run with BB_TELEMETRY=false. See apps/server/src/services/system/telemetry.ts.

Development

Use the development loop when working on bb itself:

pnpm dev

That starts the Vite app and proxies API and WebSocket traffic to a separate dev server. The launcher prints the actual ports at startup. Each checkout gets a data directory under ~/.bb-dev/<checkout-instance>/ and deterministic high ports derived from the checkout path. The checkout instance id is the sanitized path to the checkout, relative to your home directory, plus a short hash suffix. Separate worktrees can run alongside each other and the packaged npx bb-app@latest instance.

To run that same source dev server with the Electron desktop shell:

pnpm dev:desktop

This uses scripts/bb-dev-app current --desktop, which stops stale launcher sessions, checks dependencies and native modules, starts the source dev server, then opens the desktop shell against that dev app. The launcher prints the web URL but does not open a browser unless you pass --open.

To use the dev app from another machine over Tailscale, run pnpm dev, note the printed app port, and publish the loopback Vite listener:

tailscale serve --bg --https=443 http://127.0.0.1:<app-port>

Then open https://<machine>.<tailnet>.ts.net. Source dev binds both the Vite app and main server to loopback by default; Vite continues to proxy API and WebSocket traffic.

To use the component storybook from another machine, run:

pnpm storybook

Ladle binds to all interfaces and configures its HMR WebSocket to use the browser's current host instead of localhost. Do not run pnpm storybook on an untrusted network.

Development behavior is intentionally split:

• the app hot reloads itself
• the server does not hot reload
• the host daemon does not hot reload

When you want the server and host daemon to pick up the latest build output, use:

pnpm dev:restart
pnpm dev:restart-server
pnpm dev:restart-host-daemon

These rebuild first, then restart only the targeted stateful services.

To run a production-mode build from a source checkout:

pnpm start

That builds only the app, server, and host-daemon runtime artifacts, then runs the launcher directly against those workspace outputs. Use the bb-app tarball smoke task when validating the published npx bb-app@latest package layout.

pnpm bb --help            # built CLI, targets the default/prod instance
pnpm reset                # clear production state

pnpm bb:dev --help        # source CLI, targets this checkout's dev instance
pnpm reset:dev            # clear this checkout's dev state

pnpm reset:all            # clear both production and dev states

These reset commands prompt for confirmation before deleting anything.

Repository Overview

See Repository overview for the monorepo package and app map.

System Overview

See System overview for runtime architecture, data model, and component boundaries.

Further Reading

• Vision
• Platform support
• Configuration
• Using bb on multiple devices
• Worktrees and setup scripts

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines.

Troubleshooting

Could not locate the bindings file

bb uses native add-ons, for example better-sqlite3 and @parcel/watcher. npm downloads or builds those binaries in a package install script. If npm does not run install scripts, the binaries are absent. bb then stops at startup with this error:

Error: Could not locate the bindings file. Tried:
 → .../node_modules/better-sqlite3/build/better_sqlite3.node

The usual cause is ignore-scripts=true in your ~/.npmrc. Set the npm_config_ignore_scripts environment variable to let this one command run its install scripts:

npm_config_ignore_scripts=false npx bb-app@latest

For a permanent install with the same setting, use:

npm_config_ignore_scripts=false npm install -g bb-app
bb-app

The environment variable applies to that one command only. Keep ignore-scripts=true in your ~/.npmrc if you want it for security.

The same error has other causes. A Node.js major-version change after the install causes it. A copy of node_modules from a different operating system, CPU architecture, or libc variant also causes it. To recover, install the package again, or run npm rebuild better-sqlite3.