I was just happily working away and VSCODE (and IBM BOB) popped up this message:

“YIKES!!!” I thought.

Yes. I do still think in 100 year old English language style… By Jove!

But don’t worry, a quick search and I found this to ease my fears:

Status of Source Orbit and TOBi

Source Orbit is no longer actively developed – its GitHub repository was archived on March 26, 2026, and the maintainer has confirmed it is deprecated Github. This means there will be no further updates, new features, or active support for the tool.

What Source Orbit Was

Source Orbit was an object dependency management tool for IBM i designed to help developers understand and manage dependencies in RPGLE, CL, DDS, and SQL source code. It could:

• Scan source code to build a dependency tree
• Show how objects would be affected by changes
• Generate build scripts or JSON for automated builds
• Produce reports for branches and real-time project visibility Visual Studio Marketplace

It was available as both a Visual Studio Code extension and a CLI tool.

Why It Was Deprecated

The maintainer (Liam Allan, creator of the Code for IBM i project) confirmed the deprecation internally but has not issued a formal public announcement Github. The decision likely reflects a shift in focus toward other IBM i development tools and enhancements, such as the VS Code RPGLE extension and other Code for IBM i features.

TOBi and Source Orbit

TOBi (The Object Builder for i) is a separate, actively developed build system for IBM i that compiles native QSYS objects. It is not directly related to Source Orbit, though both are used in IBM i development IBM on GitHub. TOBi is under active development and is hosted on IBM’s public GitHub.

What This Means for Users

• If you rely on Source Orbit for dependency management, you may need to:
  • Migrate to alternative tools (e.g., IBM’s VS Code RPGLE extension, custom scripts, or other dependency analyzers)
  • Use its last available releases until a replacement is found
• TOBi remains a viable option for building and managing IBM i projects, especially if you also need a build system.

In short: Source Orbit is deprecated and no longer maintained, but TOBi is still actively developed and can be used alongside other modern IBM i development tools.

So, simply uninstall the Source Orbit Extension and get on with your day – TOBi has got this 🙂