bb

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 and the Windows x64 installer are alpha: expect problems, and please report them. Intel Mac users should run bb with npx instead. Native Windows needs Git for Windows, which bb uses for Git and for environment setup scripts. You can also run bb inside WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux): install WSL2 first, then run the npx command below from your WSL2 (Linux) shell.

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 control bb from outside bb with the bb CLI, open Settings → General → Command line and choose Install. See The bb Command On PATH.

To run the newest automated build instead:

npx bb-app@nightly

npm 12 and later block dependency install scripts by default. bb needs those scripts to build its native add-ons. If your npm version is 12 or later, allow the scripts for the install:

npx --allow-scripts=better-sqlite3,node-pty,@parcel/watcher bb-app@latest

Or set the policy once for all global installs:

npm config set allow-scripts=better-sqlite3,node-pty,@parcel/watcher --location=user

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, npx bb-app, and pnpm start checkouts) send anonymous usage telemetry (app starts, thread creation counts, user message counts, and plugin installs) to help us understand adoption. Each event carries the app version, how bb was installed (desktop, npm, or source checkout), and the OS release, CPU architecture, and Node version. Source checkouts report whether origin points to github.com/get-bb/bb, another repository, or is unavailable. Telemetry never includes Git commit hashes or remote URLs. Identification is a random per-install id stored in your data dir — no user, host, project, workspace, or message content is ever attached. Plugin install events name only public plugins (bundled plugins and bb-community marketplace entries); installs from a local path, a private git or npm source, or a third-party marketplace report no name. Development runs (pnpm dev, pnpm start:worktree) 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 test the production bundle and serving path without switching to production data or ports, use:

pnpm start:worktree

This builds the same optimized frontend and runtime artifacts as pnpm start, then serves the app from the BB server on the checkout-specific dev server port. It keeps the normal checkout-specific dev data directory and host-daemon port. There is no Vite dev server or hot reload in this mode; rerun the command after source changes. As with pnpm dev, worktree starts do not send telemetry.

For the Electron desktop shell, keep pnpm dev running and start the desktop package in a second terminal:

pnpm exec turbo run dev --filter=@bb/desktop

The desktop shell connects to this checkout’s running dev app. Stop each command with Ctrl-C in its terminal.

To use the dev app from another machine over Tailscale, start it with the Tailscale browser origin configured:

BB_APP_URL=https://<machine>.<tailnet>.ts.net pnpm dev

Note the printed app port, then publish the loopback Vite listener in another terminal:

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.

For direct access at http://<tailscale-ip>:<app-port> instead, run:

pnpm dev:remote

This binds the Vite app and main server to all IPv4 interfaces. The remote browser must be able to reach both the printed app and server ports for realtime updates. The server API is unauthenticated and permits command execution and file reads, so use this only behind a trusted network boundary and restrict the ports to Tailscale traffic with the host firewall when the LAN is not trusted.

To access the production-style worktree server directly from another machine, run:

pnpm start:worktree-remote

This uses the same checkout-specific data directory and ports as pnpm start:worktree, but binds its single server listener to all IPv4 interfaces. The server API is unauthenticated and permits command execution and file reads, so use it only behind a trusted network boundary and restrict the port to Tailscale traffic with the host firewall when the LAN is not trusted.

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

There are two usual causes.

The first cause is npm 12 or later. Since npm 12, npm blocks dependency install scripts by default and prints npm warn install-scripts N packages had install scripts blocked. Name bb’s native add-ons in --allow-scripts to let this one command run their install scripts:

npx --allow-scripts=better-sqlite3,node-pty,@parcel/watcher bb-app@latest

For a permanent install with the same setting, use:

npm install -g --allow-scripts=better-sqlite3,node-pty,@parcel/watcher bb-app
bb-app

To allow them for all global installs on this machine, run npm config set allow-scripts=better-sqlite3,node-pty,@parcel/watcher --location=user. npm 10 and 11 accept or ignore the flag, so it is safe on every supported Node.

The second 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.

Acknowledgements