The CAOS "system" (where CAOS stands for Code for Adaptive Optics Systems) is properly said a Problem Solving Environment (PSE). It is essentially composed of a graphical programming interface (the CAOS Application Builder) which can load different packages (set of modules). Current publicly distributed packages are the Software Package CAOS (the original adaptive optics package), the Software Package AIRY (an image-reconstruction-oriented package - AIRY stands for Astronomical Image Restoration with interferometrY), the Software Package PAOLAC (a simple CAOS interface for the analytic IDL code PAOLA developed by Laurent Jolissaint - PAOLAC stands for PAOLA within Caos), and a couple of private packages (not publicly distributed but restricted to the corresponding consortia): SPHERE (especially developed for the VLT planet finder SPHERE), and AIRY-LN (a specialized version of AIRY for the LBT instrument LINC-NIRVANA). Another package is also being developed: MAOS (that stands for Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics Simulations), developed for multi-reference multiconjugate AO studies purpose but still in a beta-version form.

IRDAP (IRDIS Data reduction for Accurate Polarimetry) accurately reduces SPHERE-IRDIS polarimetric data. It is a highly-automated end-to-end pipeline; its core feature is model-based correction of the instrumental polarization effects. IRDAP handles data taken both in field- and pupil-tracking mode and using the broadband filters Y, J, H and Ks. Data taken with the narrowband filters can be reduced as well, although with a somewhat worse accuracy. For pupil-tracking observations IRDAP can additionally apply angular differential imaging.