The future of IBC

[rlktradewright]

I've been developing, maintaining and supporting IBC (and its predecessor IBController) continuously for 23 years, and I've really had enough of it. There are other ways I want to spend my time, and at the age of 73 I don't feel it's unreasonable to want to stop working on it and use the time for something more personally relevant.

What I really want to say is that I'll contiinue to support it until 1 September 2026, and after that I will let it die. Until then I'll make any necessary fixes and adjustments to keep it working, but no new developments other than a couple of things that are in the pipeline, which I may or may not complete.

There is less need for IBC than there used to be, particularly because of the auto-restart mechanism in Gateway and TWS. While IBC adds some convenience to the TWS/Gateway experience, there are plenty of users who manage without it, and i don't doubt that those of us who do use it can find suitable ways of working to manage without it.

I realise that this might come as a surprise, and I'm sorry if it causes too much upset, but there's no easy way to step out of something like this without causing some inconvenience.

It may be that there is someone somewhere who would be willing to carry it forward, presumably by forking it to a new project with a new name. I've no idea how that possibility should be progressed, or who might be a likely candidate to take on the responsibility, but this Discussion could be used for getting something started.

Please feel free to record reactions, comments, suggestions or observations here.

I'm also posting this notice to the IBC User Group.

[EnricoLatella]

Thanks for your valuable effort!
Much appreciated Sir!

[perriea]

Thank you for your time and effort over the past 23 years! 🥇

[gnzsnz]

Thank you so much for your passion and dedication. Enjoy your time!

[nayanbhana]

Thanks for your time and effort. What an innings!

[robertkovalauskis]

Hi rlktradewright,
Your continuous maintenance and development of IBC is much appreciated. Thank you!

[rlktradewright]

Thanks for all the kind comments. They're much appreciated.

I hope you all won't mind if I don't respond individually to all of them .

[FelixJongleur42]

Whoa, my biggest respect for sticking with this project for so long. Your retirement will be well deserved.
Maybe @gnzsnz would be a candidate to adopt your project - his/hers is: https://github.com/gnzsnz/ib-gateway-docker

[gnzsnz]

Thanks for the offer. But I have a lot on my plate at the moment, and I don't see it getting better.

I have opened an issue gnzsnz/ib-gateway-docker#366 to find a good replacement for IBC. There are a few good ideas there, so if anybody on this thread would like to contribute feel free to go there.

[code-hustler-ft3d]

I built a Python-based replacement focused on the headless Docker use case: ibg-controller. It's running in production now in dual mode with 60 tests and a CI pipeline.

Uses the same in-JVM agent approach for text input (Swing rejects external input, as you well know) with pyatspi2 for everything else. Honors 21 of 22 IBC env vars so the migration is close to a drop-in swap.

Your work on IBC was the reference for every dialog handler and edge case. Thank you for 23 years of maintaining this, it made the whole ecosystem possible.

[FelixJongleur42]

I skimmed through your README and that looks quite promising! I will have a look at it some time.
Currently, I am doing paper trading only with IB Gateway and dropping out of market data subscription is awkward, looking into restart.
Before I go into live trading, I might evaluate your implementation, especially for 2FA.

[igorlino]

Thanks a lot @code-hustler-ft3d it is really impressive, also the attention about the security

[XYUU]

On September 1st, 2026, if the original author is no longer maintaining this project, I will take over its maintenance. I will fork the repository and continue refactoring and optimizing the codebase. I have over 20 years of software development experience, and I am currently 41 years old.
The work I have already completed includes:

1. Migrating the project from Ant to Gradle

2. Implementing automated two‑factor authentication, eliminating the need to manually confirm IB Key (while still supporting the original confirmation workflow)

3. Adding an SPI‑based notification mechanism that informs other Java programs after login, enabling Java‑based automated trading systems to start through this integration.

[gnzsnz]

are you planning to publish the new repo?

[XYUU]

Sure, I'll publish the new repo to GitHub.
At this stage I've only implemented a few minor features (as described above). If @rlktradewright does not intend to submit further changes, I can proceed with the large-scale refactoring and the overall architectural and package restructuring.

[XYUU]

https://github.com/XYUU/IBC/
So far I’ve implemented multi‑language support (via AST‑based refactoring). It has passed some basic tests, although full test coverage is still pending. I’ve also added automated two‑factor authentication, refactored the logging system, and migrated the project from Ant to Gradle.

As for the roadmap, I plan to gradually reduce the reliance on the existing .bat and .sh scripts and improve the overall user experience with more user‑friendly interaction flows.

[rlktradewright]

@XYUU

First let me say thanks for offering to take this on. I wish you success with it.

I wanted to keep out of the way during this transitional period, so as not to unduly influence the new direction, but I'm getting concerned about a number of aspects of how things are going. I'll try to address them soon.

But right now, looking at your new repository, I just want to say that I am retaining the name "IBC", and the existing IBC project will continue to exist for the forseeable future (but possibly not for very long: I can't say at this stage). So you will have to think of a new name for your fork.

I don't mind if your name indicates some relationship to IBC, and clearly you should probably explain somewhere that your project has been forked from IBC, but I want to avoid the possibility that people might incorrectly assume that your project is actually my project or that it has been somehow been endorsed by me.

I would also consider it a courtesy if you let me know what name you propose to use.

Thanks.

[XYUU]

I haven’t yet decided on a new name for the project. To be honest, I wouldn’t even be thinking about renaming it if you hadn’t brought it up. I would probably postpone this until after September 2026, because renaming the project would require updating a large amount of documentation and links, and I’ve only just finished cleaning all of that up. If I do come up with a good name, I will let you know immediately.

Since this project originated from your work, I will continue to respect your wishes even if you are no longer maintaining it in the future. My intention in taking over the project is not to “deliver” something to anyone, but simply because your technical approach is an excellent solution for Java‑based UI automation — it is, in my view, the best approach available today. Some people use coordinate‑based automation tools, but those methods cannot reliably read UI state nor provide meaningful feedback.

Everything I’ve done here is because I personally needed these capabilities, and sharing them back with the world costs me nothing. If anything, I should be the one thanking you for your 23 years of quiet dedication. You planted the seed of goodwill, and now it has finally begun to grow.