Agentic Development

BoxLang is built for AI agents and developers working together. Learn how to set up your project, skills, MCP servers, and IDE for agentic development.

BoxLang is a software productivity platform built for developers and the AI agents working beside them. Agents build better software on platforms that are predictable, well documented, and complete. This section shows how to set up a BoxLang project so your agent is productive from the first prompt.

🎯 Why BoxLang Works Well for Agents

Trait	What it means for an agent
Batteries included	Files, HTTP, JDBC, async, caching, scheduling, templating, logging, and AI ship with the platform. The agent wires up fewer libraries and makes fewer choices.
Conventions	Application.bx lifecycle, module layouts, configuration in boxlang.json, and consistent BIF naming give agents patterns to follow.
Skills	Installable SKILL.md playbooks from skills.boxlang.io teach the agent how to perform specific BoxLang tasks the idiomatic way.
Docs over MCP	The documentation is available to agents as MCP servers, so they read current docs instead of guessing.
Live introspection	With BoxLang+, the bx-mcp module lets an agent inspect a running server through MCP, with access control.
Java underneath	100% Java interoperability gives the agent the whole JVM ecosystem when it needs it.
Fast validation	boxlang check validates syntax without running code, so agents can verify every edit.
One runtime, many targets	The same code runs on the CLI, web servers, containers, and serverless platforms.

🧰 The Agentic Toolkit

AI SetupSkills & GuidelinesValidate Your CodeBoxLang MCPBuild an App End to EndBoxLang IDEAgent-Ready Checklist

🚀 Fastest Path

1. Install BoxLang.

2. Install the BoxLang developer skills: npx skills add ortus-boxlang/skills/boxlang-developer. See Skills & Guidelines.

3. Add a project AGENTS.md and connect the docs MCP servers. See AI Setup.

4. Have your agent validate every edit with boxlang check. See Validate Your Code.

5. Building a web application? Use ColdBox and its coldbox ai install wizard.

6. Want your agent to see a running server? Try BoxLang MCP.

7. Want your agent to use the app it builds, in a real browser? See Build an App End to End with bx-playwright.

Building a BoxLang web app? Start from cbGenesis. It's a production-ready ColdBox starter with AGENTS.md, 90+ framework skills, and six project-specific skills already wired in - the fastest way to build a BoxLang web application with an AI agent at hand. In one measured run, an agent using cbGenesis's skills needed 42% fewer tool calls and 34% less time than one exploring the same codebase from scratch. coldbox create app skeleton=cbgenesis

Try every BoxLang+ module free for 60 days. The trial starts automatically the first time you start a BoxLang server or CLI with a BoxLang+ module installed. No sign-up and no key. Enterprise support and premium modules are available when you join us.

🤖 Building AI Features, Not Just With AI

Agentic development is about using agents to write your application. BoxLang also lets you build AI into your application with chat, agents, tools, memory, RAG, and MCP through the BoxLang AI module.