State of AI Coding Tools — August 2026
By Scott Havird · · Monthly Data Report
83 releases across 8 AI coding tools in August 2026. Claude Code led with 28. Velocity down 28% MoM. Release velocity, cadence, and first-to-ship data.
Key Takeaways
- Claude Code led with 28 releases in August 2026 — one every 1 days (33.7% of all releases tracked).
- Overall shipping velocity was down 28% month-over-month: 83 releases vs 116 the month before.
- 1 major and 15 minor version bumps shipped; the remaining 67 releases were patches.
- Cursor shipped nothing in August 2026 after releasing the month before.
- Claude Code has been first to ship 9 of the 20 cross-tool features we track. The median follower ships the same capability 310 days later.
Release Velocity Leaderboard — August 2026
| Tool | Releases | MoM change | Share | Avg days between releases | Major | Minor | Patch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 28 | +6 | 33.7% | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Grok Build | 16 | -23 | 19.3% | 1.7 | 1 | 0 | 15 |
| Antigravity CLI | 13 | +1 | 15.7% | 2 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| OpenAI Codex CLI | 8 | -3 | 9.6% | 3.4 | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| Gemini CLI | 5 | 0 | 6% | 4.9 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | 5 | -5 | 6% | 6.5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Kiro CLI | 4 | -7 | 4.8% | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Devin Desktop | 4 | -1 | 4.8% | 6.7 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Cursor | 0 | -1 | 0% | — | 0 | 0 | 0 |
12-Month Velocity Trend
| Month | Total releases |
|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 90 |
| Oct 2025 | 110 |
| Nov 2025 | 117 |
| Dec 2025 | 72 |
| Jan 2026 | 79 |
| Feb 2026 | 88 |
| Mar 2026 | 70 |
| Apr 2026 | 86 |
| May 2026 | 88 |
| Jun 2026 | 144 |
| Jul 2026 | 116 |
| Aug 2026 | 83 |
First to Ship & Copying Trends
Across 20 tracked cross-tool features, 19 are contested (shipped by 2+ tools). The median follower ships the same capability 310 days after the leader.
| Tool | Times first to ship | Times follower | Median follow lag (days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 9 | 8 | 159 |
| Devin Desktop | 9 | 7 | 180 |
| OpenAI Codex CLI | 1 | 15 | 230 |
| Cursor | 0 | 9 | 259 |
| Gemini CLI | 0 | 5 | 328 |
| Kiro CLI | 0 | 11 | 381 |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | 0 | 17 | 279 |
| Antigravity CLI | 0 | 12 | 468 |
| Grok Build | 0 | 13 | 489 |
Feature shipments this month
- Kiro CLI shipped Sandboxing / Permission Modes — 489 days after Claude Code
- Kiro CLI shipped Background Tasks — 369 days after Claude Code
- Kiro CLI shipped Voice Input — 392 days after Devin Desktop
- Kiro CLI shipped Project Memory Files — 610 days after Devin Desktop
- Antigravity CLI shipped MCP Support — 553 days after Devin Desktop
- Grok Build shipped Sandboxing / Permission Modes — 503 days after Claude Code
- Grok Build shipped Headless / Non-interactive Mode — 504 days after Claude Code
- Antigravity CLI shipped Voice Input — 405 days after Devin Desktop
Ecosystem Pulse
| Tool | GitHub stars | npm weekly downloads | Downloads trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 143,633 | 21,450,823 | -3.3% |
| OpenAI Codex CLI | 120,602 | 20,368,373 | +25.7% |
| Gemini CLI | 106,759 | 394,729 | +3.2% |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | 11,131 | 1,272 | -22.8% |
| Antigravity CLI | 2,102 | — | — |
| Grok Build | 26,318 | — | — |
Notable Releases
- Claude Code v2.1.239 (August 21, 2026): Claude Code 2.1.239 now shows accurate cost estimates for data-residency workspaces and brings fullscreen mode to more cloud platforms. We've also fixed critical issues with streaming on Bedrock, proxy support, and added helpful tools like automatic Python project upgrades and...
- Grok Build v1.0.1 (August 10, 2026): Grok Build 1.0.1 makes your workspace safer and more efficient with smarter resource management—subagents now queue instead of crashing your system, and the new /rewind command protects your files while asking for confirmation. We've also added the grok du command to help you ...
- Antigravity CLI v1.1.12 (August 11, 2026): Antigravity CLI 1.1.12 makes navigating long documents faster with an instant outline view and lets you pull structured data from commands without starting a conversation. You can also customize your skill library to hide internal commands from the menu while keeping them avai...
- OpenAI Codex CLI rust-v0.148.0 (August 18, 2026): OpenAI Codex CLI rust-v0.148.0 now lets you export conversations to Markdown and fork sessions to explore different directions without losing your work. You can also see real-time costs and connect Amazon Bedrock as a built-in provider, plus we've fixed stability issues around...
- Gemini CLI v0.55.1 (August 11, 2026): Gemini CLI v0.55.1 brings improved security with stricter path protections and fixes critical release issues to ensure stable deployments. We've also added automatic tool registry discovery to make setup faster and easier. Check the full changelog to see all the stability impr...
- GitHub Copilot CLI v1.0.81 (August 27, 2026): GitHub Copilot CLI v1.0.81 introduces a new plugins dashboard that gives you easy access to extend functionality, plus improved session recovery so crashes and restarts no longer mean losing your open terminals. The update also brings better AI reasoning options and smoother a...
- Kiro CLI v2.18.0 (August 12, 2026): Kiro CLI 2.18.0 brings voice input so you can dictate commands instead of typing, plus a new review screen for spec runs that lets you read documents and stage comments more easily. Check out the full release notes to see what else has changed under the hood.
- Devin Desktop v3.7.16 (August 10, 2026): Devin Desktop 3.7.16 makes it safer to update by confirming when agents are working, and brings better organization with Settings opening as regular tabs instead of pop-ups. Plus, we've polished the Agent Command Center and fixed several annoying bugs that'll make your workflo...
Use this data
This report is generated from Havoptic's continuously collected release dataset — free to cite with attribution and a link to this page. Raw data: reports.json. Method: how we collect and classify releases.
Suggested citation: "State of AI Coding Tools — August 2026", Havoptic, September 1, 2026, https://www.havoptic.com/reports/2026-08