RPGTools Suite

RPGTools Suite is the technical foundation of CodeShift Pro. It provides the Core parsing engine, a CLI, a Web Console and a VS Code extension designed for IBM i environments.

Components

Core

Parsing & generation engine

Core is responsible for understanding your existing IBM i assets:

Parsing of RPG source files.
Parsing of COBOL programs.
Parsing of wsparam and properties files.
Swagger generation (JSON/YAML) from RPG and configuration files.
Generation of properties files from RPG.
Consistency checks between RPG and properties.
Semi-automatic detection of endpoints inside RPG programs.
Transports: local, ODBC and SSH.

CLI

Automation & CI/CD

The CLI exposes the Core features through a command-line interface:

Swagger generation from scripts.
Automatic RPG skeleton and properties generation.
Integration with build pipelines for validation.

Web Console

Configuration & remote generation

Generate Swagger from local or remote RPG sources.
Generate properties and skeletons from Swagger.
Manage environments, transports and credentials.
Expose configuration through an API for the VS Code extension.

VS Code

Developer experience

“RPGTools” view container in VS Code.
Context commands for Swagger and skeleton generation.
Display of parsing and validation messages.
Support for local and remote IBM i environments.

Typical use cases

Expose existing RPG programs as APIs

Start from existing RPG code, detect endpoints, generate Swagger and enforce consistent API specifications across teams.

Standardize new developments

Use Swagger as the contract and generate normalized RPG skeletons so all developers start from the same structure and conventions.

Automate documentation & checks

Integrate RPGTools into CI/CD to automatically generate documentation and run consistency checks between code and configuration.

Why automate with RPGTools?

Comparison of a standard API development cycle.

Task	Manual Method	With RPGTools
API Documentation	Manual (Word/Wiki). Often stale.	Generated (Swagger). Always up-to-date.
RPG Skeleton	Risky Copy/Paste.	Generated & Standardized.
Consistency	Visual check.	Automated validation.
Avg. Time	~ 4 hours / endpoint	~ 15 minutes / endpoint

Enterprise ROI & benefits

RPGTools focuses on pragmatic, measurable gains for IBM i teams.

⏱ Time savings

Significant reduction of time spent creating RPG skeletons.
Automatic API documentation instead of manual updates.
Reduced time spent on repetitive consistency checks.

🛡 Risk reduction

Standardized program structures for new developments.
Automated validation reduces regression risk.
Consistent and versioned API definitions.

🚀 Modernization accelerator

Brings IBM i development into VS Code.
CI/CD-friendly tooling for IBM i assets.
API-driven approach without a big-bang rewrite.

Demonstration videos

Short demo videos will soon be available here to illustrate the main scenarios: Swagger from RPG, RPG skeletons from Swagger, and VS Code integration.

Generate Swagger from RPG

Video placeholder – will show a complete flow from RPG to Swagger.

Generate RPG skeleton from Swagger

Video placeholder – will show skeleton creation using a Swagger contract.

VS Code integration

Video placeholder – will show developer experience inside VS Code.