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.
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.
npx bb-app@latestThen 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@nightlynpm 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@latestOr set the policy once for all global installs:
npm config set allow-scripts=better-sqlite3,node-pty,@parcel/watcher --location=userbb uses the provider CLI you already have authenticated.
For install requirements, provider setup, configuration, and package-focused
docs, start with
packages/bb-app.
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.
Use the development loop when working on bb itself:
pnpm devThat 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:worktreeThis 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/desktopThe 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 devNote 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:remoteThis 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-remoteThis 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 storybookLadle 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-daemonThese rebuild first, then restart only the targeted stateful services.
To run a production-mode build from a source checkout:
pnpm startThat 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 statesThese reset commands prompt for confirmation before deleting anything.
See Repository overview for the monorepo package and app map.
See System overview for runtime architecture, data model, and component boundaries.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines.
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@latestFor a permanent install with the same setting, use:
npm install -g --allow-scripts=better-sqlite3,node-pty,@parcel/watcher bb-app
bb-appTo 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@latestFor a permanent install with the same setting, use:
npm_config_ignore_scripts=false npm install -g bb-app
bb-appThe 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.
