{"slug": "tried-ibm-bob-an-ai-agentic-coding-assistant-built-a-basic-java-microservices-in", "title": "Tried IBM Bob, an AI agentic coding assistant. Built a basic Java microservices architecture in ~15 minutes", "summary": "A developer tested IBM Bob, an AI agentic coding assistant, and built a basic Java microservices architecture in about 15 minutes. Starting with a high-level prompt, Bob generated Spring Boot microservices with REST APIs, JPA repositories, Swagger documentation, and standardized error handling, then added retry patterns and health checks. The developer noted that while the result is not production-ready, it demonstrates how much groundwork can be laid quickly with prompt-driven development.", "body_md": "I've been trying out **IBM Bob**, an AI coding assistant, and recently watched a demo that caught my attention.\n\nA lot of coding demos focus on generating a single function or API. This one was different. The goal was to start with a high-level idea and see how far a few prompts could take a Spring Boot microservices project.\n\nThe first prompt was pretty simple:\n\n```\nDesign a customer order management system with separate services for customers, orders, inventory, and notifications.\n```\n\nBob broke the problem down into multiple services and proposed a reasonable microservices architecture.\n\nIt felt similar to the kind of architecture sketch you'd normally put together before writing any code.\n\nThe next step was expanding that architecture into actual services.\n\n```\nGenerate Spring Boot microservices for the architecture above.\nInclude REST APIs, service layers, JPA repositories,\nSwagger documentation, and standardized error handling.\n```\n\nFrom there, Bob generated:\n\nWhat surprised me wasn't any individual component. It was how much of the repetitive setup work was handled automatically.\n\nOnce the services were in place, the focus shifted to reliability.\n\n```\nAdd retry patterns and health checks to the order service.\n```\n\nBob then generated:\n\nThese are the kinds of things that often get postponed until later in a project, so it was interesting to see them added through a follow-up prompt.\n\nFinally, the generated services were started and validated.\n\n```\nStart all services, verify health endpoints,\nand open the generated API documentation.\n```\n\nThe workflow included:\n\nAt that point, there was a runnable system rather than just generated source files.\n\nThe interesting part wasn't that AI generated Java code.\n\nWe've all seen that before.\n\nWhat stood out was the progression:\n\n```\nIdea\n  ↓\nArchitecture\n  ↓\nMultiple Services\n  ↓\nResilience\n  ↓\nObservability\n  ↓\nRunnable System\n```\n\nAll of that came from a small series of prompts rather than manually building everything piece by piece.\n\nIs it production-ready? Obviously not.\n\nThere are still questions around security, testing, deployment, performance, governance, and long-term maintainability.\n\nBut as a way to bootstrap a cloud-native Java project, it was impressive to see how much groundwork could be laid in a short time.\n\nHas anyone here used **IBM Bob**, **Claude Code**, **Cursor**, **GitHub Copilot**, or similar agentic coding tools for Java/Spring Boot projects?\n\nWhat's the most useful thing you've had them build, and where do you still find yourself taking over manually?", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tried-ibm-bob-an-ai-agentic-coding-assistant-built-a-basic-java-microservices-in", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/abhayraoym/tried-ibm-bob-an-ai-agentic-coding-assistant-built-a-basic-java-microservices-architecture-in-15-1n6c", "published_at": "2026-09-09 05:44:07+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-09 05:59:01.099587+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "developer-tools", "ai-agents", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["IBM Bob", "Spring Boot", "Java", "Claude Code", "Cursor", "GitHub Copilot"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tried-ibm-bob-an-ai-agentic-coding-assistant-built-a-basic-java-microservices-in", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tried-ibm-bob-an-ai-agentic-coding-assistant-built-a-basic-java-microservices-in.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tried-ibm-bob-an-ai-agentic-coding-assistant-built-a-basic-java-microservices-in.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tried-ibm-bob-an-ai-agentic-coding-assistant-built-a-basic-java-microservices-in.jsonld"}}