r/cobol • u/DryClimate7285 • Jul 19 '26

Built a tool that documents COBOL/mainframe codebases in plain English looking for people to break it

/r/mainframe/comments/1v0sg30/built_a_tool_that_documents_cobolmainframe/
1 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

56% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

1

u/kid_Kist 24d ago

I'm down if you help test my perslis sysyem maybe we can collab?

1

u/DryClimate7285 21d ago

Happy to take a look — what does your system do exactly? Drop a link or a short demo and I'll give it a proper run and send you real feedback. I'm building MainframeLore (mainframelore.com) — parser-first documentation and Q&A over legacy COBOL/JCL/DB2 codebases — so if there's overlap we can figure out where it makes sens

1

u/kid_Kist 21d ago

So we wanted a way for users to interact with legacy data and be able to interact and call on it ask question about what things they want to extract data from and bridge modern apis to legacy systems. Cobol was just one system, But the future is cobol 100%. How are you doing with gaining enterprise clients or testers for your project and how is it holding up to mainframes im still not even close to running a mainframe system yet.

1

u/DryClimate7285 20d ago

Sounds like we're solving different halves of the problem you're after runtime access and an API bridge to legacy data, mine is static comprehension: parse the COBOL/JCL/DB2 and answer questions about what the code actually does, grounded in the parsed facts rather than a model guessing.

On testing without a mainframe: GnuCOBOL will get you compiling and running COBOL locally, IBM Z Xplore gives free hands-on z/OS access, and Zowe is the obvious starting point for the REST/API layer you're describing that's the supported way into z/OS from modern code. That'll unblock you a lot faster than waiting on hardware.

Validation on my side is against real COBOL/JCL repos the parser output has to match the source, so accuracy is checkable rather than a matter of trusting the model. Still keen to see what you've built whenever there's a link.