AI coding tools have launched, merged, been sold and been retired so quickly that a tool approved last year may now have a new owner, a new name or an end-of-support date. This page is a dated timeline of the main AI coding assistants and coding agents from GitHub Copilot's general availability in 2022 to November 2026: launches, general availability, acquisitions, spin-outs, renames and shutdown notices. It is for engineering leaders, procurement and security teams who need to know what happened to a tool before they renew, migrate or approve it. Every date comes from the vendor's own blog, changelog or documentation. Tools are ordered by date in the master timeline and alphabetically in the per-tool sections; order is never a ranking. Last checked: 2026-11-15.
This is an independent reference page from NHI Mgmt Group based on public provider documentation; it is not sponsored or endorsed by any provider.
Key takeaways
- Three ownership changes reshaped the market. Cognition signed an agreement to acquire Windsurf on 14 July 2025, Amp became its own company on 2 December 2025, and Cursor announced on 14 August 2026 that it had been acquired by SpaceX.
- One major product has a shutdown date. AWS announced on 30 April 2026 that Amazon Q Developer IDE plugins and paid subscriptions reach end of support on 30 April 2027, naming Kiro as the successor.
- 2025 was the year of the agent. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Kiro and Google Antigravity all launched in 2025, most as previews.
- Previews become products fast. Claude Code went from limited research preview on 24 February 2025 to general availability on 22 May 2025.
- Dates drive governance work. Ownership changes and retirements change data terms, subprocessors and admin consoles, so each event below is a trigger to review contracts and controls.
Master timeline
As of 15 November 2026. Dates are publication dates of the vendor's own announcement. Where a vendor gives only a month or year, that is all the table shows.
| Date | Tool | Event type | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | GitHub Copilot | Preview | Technical preview launched (year as stated in GitHub's GA post) |
| 21 June 2022 | GitHub Copilot | General availability | Generally available to all developers for $10 per month or $100 per year |
| 14 February 2023 | GitHub Copilot | New plan | Copilot for Business opened to every developer, team, organisation and enterprise |
| 12 March 2024 | Devin | Launch (early access) | Cognition introduced Devin with a waitlist |
| 24 February 2025 | Claude Code | Preview | Introduced in a limited research preview |
| 25 February 2025 | Gemini Code Assist | Preview | Free Gemini Code Assist for individuals in public preview |
| April 2025 | Codex CLI | Launch | Launched the month before Codex cloud, per OpenAI's announcement |
| 16 May 2025 | OpenAI Codex | Preview | Cloud software engineering agent in research preview, running codex-1 |
| 22 May 2025 | Claude Code | General availability | Claude Code generally available |
| 3 June 2025 | OpenAI Codex | Plan expansion | Access extended to ChatGPT Plus users |
| 4 June 2025 | Cursor | Major version | Cursor 1.0 with Bugbot and Background Agent for all users |
| 25 June 2025 | Gemini CLI | Launch (preview) | Open-source terminal agent under Apache 2.0 |
| 14 July 2025 | Kiro | Launch (preview) | AI IDE with specs and hooks, free during preview, waitlist |
| 14 July 2025 | Windsurf | Acquisition | Cognition signed a definitive agreement to acquire Windsurf |
| 29 October 2025 | Cursor | Major version | Cursor 2.0 with the Composer model; Background Agents renamed Cloud Agents |
| 13 November 2025 | Cursor | Funding | Series D of $2.3 billion at $29.3 billion post-money |
| 18 November 2025 | Google Antigravity | Launch (preview) | Agentic development platform in public preview at no charge for individuals |
| 2 December 2025 | Amp | Spin-out | Amp announced it is becoming its own company, Amp Frontier Corporation |
| 2 April 2026 | Cursor | Major version | Cursor 3.0 with the Agents Window and Design Mode |
| 30 April 2026 | Amazon Q Developer | End of support notice | AWS announced end of support for IDE plugins and paid subscriptions |
| 14 May 2026 | Amp | Rename | CLI npm package renamed to @ampcode/cli (was @sourcegraph/amp) |
| 15 May 2026 | Amazon Q Developer | Sales stop | New Free Tier and paid subscription sign-ups blocked |
| 29 May 2026 | Amazon Q Developer | Model removal | Opus 4.6 removed from Q Developer Pro |
| 14 August 2026 | Cursor | Acquisition | "Cursor is now a part of SpaceX" |
| 21 September 2026 | Cursor | Model | Grok 4.7 announced on Cursor's blog |
| 20 October 2026 | Cursor | Launch | Agent SDK for agents defined as code |
| 30 April 2027 (scheduled) | Amazon Q Developer | End of support | IDE plugins and paid subscriptions reach end of support |
Cursor has more rows than other tools because Cursor publishes a dated changelog with numbered major versions and a dated blog; other vendors' minor releases are not listed here for any tool, so the table stays at the level of launches, plans, ownership and retirement.
Acquisitions, spin-outs and renames
| Date | Tool | Change | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 July 2025 | Windsurf | Cognition signed a definitive agreement to acquire Windsurf, the agentic IDE | Which company is the contracting party, which account system users sign in with, where admin settings now live |
| 2 December 2025 | Amp | Amp became its own company, Amp Frontier Corporation, separate from Sourcegraph; npm package renamed on 14 May 2026 | Contracting entity, package name in build scripts and allowlists, data processing terms |
| 14 August 2026 | Cursor | Cursor announced it had been acquired by SpaceX; Grok models and Grok features now appear in plans | Plan names and prices, model providers in use, data use terms and subprocessor list |
Windsurf and Devin Desktop: as of 15 November 2026, Cognition's Devin documentation describes Devin Local as "the primary local agent for Devin Desktop", refers to the Windsurf dashboard as the place where Windsurf Enterprise admins manage settings, and describes Cascade as a legacy agent that admins can disable entirely. The documentation pages read for this timeline do not state a rename date, so none is given here. Treat the naming as in transition and confirm against Cognition's current documentation.
Shutdowns and end of support
The one formal end-of-support notice among the major tools as of 15 November 2026 is Amazon Q Developer.
| Date | Milestone | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| 30 April 2026 | Announcement | AWS DevOps blog post on end of support |
| 15 May 2026 | New sign-ups close | Free Tier account creation and new paid subscriptions blocked; users can still be added to existing Q Developer Pro subscriptions |
| 29 May 2026 | Model removal | Opus 4.6 removed from Q Developer Pro |
| 30 April 2027 | End of support | Q Developer IDE plugins in VS Code, JetBrains, Eclipse and Visual Studio, paid subscriptions, and code transformation (Java upgrades and .NET porting) |
AWS states that Amazon Q Developer in the AWS Management Console, on the AWS documentation and marketing websites, in the AWS Console Mobile App and in chat apps (Slack and Microsoft Teams) is not affected. The named successor is Kiro, and AWS describes the window as giving "customers 12 months to transition to Kiro".
Deprecation inside products: features also retire inside tools that remain active. Cursor's models page states that Max Mode is available only on legacy request-based plans, and Cognition's documentation labels Cascade as legacy. These do not appear as shutdowns in the master timeline, but they matter for anyone writing internal guidance.
Tool-by-tool history
Alphabetical. Each entry carries the same fields: owner, first dated event, key milestones, and status as of 15 November 2026.
Amazon Q Developer
- Owner: AWS.
- Key milestones: end of support announced 30 April 2026; new sign-ups closed 15 May 2026; end of support for IDE plugins and paid subscriptions 30 April 2027.
- Status: end of support announced; successor named as Kiro.
- Security guide: Amazon Q Developer and Kiro Security Guide.
Amp
- Owner: Amp Frontier Corporation (spun out of Sourcegraph).
- Key milestones: became its own company 2 December 2025; CLI npm package renamed to @ampcode/cli on 14 May 2026.
- Status: active as an independent company.
Claude Code
- Owner: Anthropic.
- Key milestones: limited research preview 24 February 2025, described as Anthropic's first agentic coding tool; general availability 22 May 2025.
- Status: active.
- Profile and security guide: Claude Code profile and Claude Code Security Guide.
Cursor
- Owner: SpaceX (acquisition announced 14 August 2026).
- Key milestones: 1.0 on 4 June 2025; 2.0 with Composer on 29 October 2025; Series D on 13 November 2025; 3.0 on 2 April 2026; acquisition 14 August 2026; Agent SDK 20 October 2026.
- Status: active.
- Profile and security guide: Cursor profile and Cursor Security Guide.
Devin and Windsurf
- Owner: Cognition.
- Key milestones: Devin introduced in early access 12 March 2024; definitive agreement to acquire Windsurf 14 July 2025; Devin Desktop and Devin Local described in current documentation, with Cascade labelled legacy.
- Status: active, with naming in transition.
- Profile and security guide: Devin Desktop and Windsurf profile and Devin Security.
Gemini CLI and Gemini Code Assist
- Owner: Google.
- Key milestones: free Gemini Code Assist for individuals in public preview 25 February 2025 (VS Code, JetBrains IDEs and GitHub); Gemini CLI launched in preview under Apache 2.0 on 25 June 2025.
- Status: active.
- Profile and security guide: Gemini CLI and Code Assist profile and Gemini CLI and Gemini Code Assist Security Guide.
GitHub Copilot
- Owner: GitHub (Microsoft).
- Key milestones: technical preview in 2021; general availability 21 June 2022 at $10 per month or $100 per year; Copilot for Business available 14 February 2023.
- Status: active.
- Profile and security guide: GitHub Copilot profile and GitHub Copilot Security Guide.
Google Antigravity
- Owner: Google.
- Key milestones: public preview 18 November 2025, at no charge for individuals, on macOS, Linux and Windows, with Gemini 3, Claude Sonnet 4.5 and GPT-OSS models at launch.
- Status: active.
Kiro
- Owner: AWS.
- Key milestones: preview launched 14 July 2025, free during preview with a waitlist; named by AWS on 30 April 2026 as the successor to Amazon Q Developer.
- Status: active.
- Profile and security guide: Kiro profile and Amazon Q Developer and Kiro Security Guide.
OpenAI Codex
- Owner: OpenAI.
- Key milestones: Codex CLI in April 2025; Codex cloud agent research preview 16 May 2025 for Pro, Enterprise and Business users; Plus access 3 June 2025.
- Status: active.
- Profile and security guide: OpenAI Codex profile and OpenAI Codex Security Guide.
Patterns across the timeline
| Pattern | Examples from the timeline | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|
| Launch as preview, then GA or paid | Claude Code (preview February 2025, GA May 2025); Codex (research preview May 2025); Gemini CLI, Kiro and Antigravity launched as previews | Preview terms, limits and data handling can differ from GA terms; re-review at GA |
| Assistant to agent | Copilot autocomplete in 2022; cloud and terminal agents from 2025 (Codex, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Cursor Cloud Agents) | Tools gain terminal, file and repository write access, which changes the risk review |
| Consolidation | Cognition and Windsurf; Cursor and SpaceX | New owner can change plans, models, subprocessors and account systems |
| Separation | Amp from Sourcegraph | New contracting entity and renamed packages |
| Retirement with successor | Amazon Q Developer to Kiro | Fixed migration window; plan the move well before the end-of-support date |
For how assistants and agents differ, see AI Coding Assistants vs Autonomous Coding Agents. For the current set of tools side by side, see the AI coding tools hub and the AI Coding Tools Pricing Tracker.
What these events mean for teams
- Ownership change: read the new owner's data use page and subprocessor list, check whether model providers changed, and confirm the contracting entity on invoices and the data processing agreement.
- Rename: update allowlists, package names, MDM profiles, egress rules and internal documentation. The Amp npm rename is a concrete example where build scripts and dependency allowlists need a change.
- End of support: inventory users and integrations, choose a successor, test it with a pilot group, and set an internal cut-off earlier than the vendor date. For Amazon Q Developer, include code transformation jobs in scope.
- Preview to GA: repeat the risk review at GA, because pricing, retention and admin controls are often added or changed then.
- Credentials: every migration leaves old tokens, OAuth grants and service accounts behind. Revoke them when a tool is retired. See AI Coding Tools and Secrets Sprawl and the unsanctioned AI coding assistants guide.
How dates on this page are defined
Vendors use launch words loosely, so the event types in the tables above have fixed meanings on this page.
| Event type | Meaning on this page | Typical vendor wording |
|---|---|---|
| Preview | Public or limited access before general availability, often with a waitlist or free usage | "research preview", "public preview", "early access", "technical preview" |
| General availability | The vendor states the product is generally available | "generally available" |
| Major version | A numbered major release in the vendor's changelog | "1.0", "2.0", "3.0" |
| Acquisition | The vendor or acquirer announces a signed agreement or completed acquisition; the table quotes which | "definitive agreement to acquire", "acquired by" |
| Spin-out or rename | A product moves to a new company or changes its name or package name | "becoming its own company", "renamed" |
| End of support | The vendor sets a date after which the product or plan is no longer supported | "end of support", "no longer accessible" |
Dates are the vendor post's publication date, which can differ from the day a feature reached every user. Where a vendor gives a month or a relative reference ("last month") rather than a date, the page shows only what the vendor states. Events reported only by news outlets or secondary listings are left out until the vendor's own page confirms them, which is why no rename date is shown for Windsurf. Prices quoted are the launch prices in the announcement; current prices are on each vendor's pricing page.
Practitioner checklist
- Keep an inventory of every AI coding tool in use, with owner company, plan, contract entity and renewal date.
- Add each vendor's blog, changelog or release notes to a monthly review so ownership and retirement news reaches procurement.
- Treat any acquisition or spin-out as a trigger to re-read data use terms, subprocessors and the data processing agreement.
- For Amazon Q Developer users, plan migration ahead of 30 April 2027 and set an internal deadline.
- Update package allowlists, MDM profiles and egress rules after renames such as @sourcegraph/amp to @ampcode/cli.
- Revoke tokens, OAuth grants and service accounts belonging to retired or replaced tools.
- Re-run the security review when a preview tool reaches general availability or changes plans.
- Record the as-of date beside any tool status quoted in internal policy.
Standards and references
- AWS: Amazon Q Developer end of support announcement
- Cognition: Windsurf acquisition announcement
- Cursor: Blog
- GitHub: GitHub Copilot is generally available to all developers
- Anthropic: Introducing Claude 4 (Claude Code general availability)
- OpenAI: Introducing Codex
- Google: Introducing Gemini CLI
- Kiro: Introducing Kiro
- Google: Introducing Google Antigravity
- Amp: News
- Cognition: Devin Local documentation
- Cognition: Introducing Devin
- Anthropic: Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Code
- Google: Gemini Code Assist for individuals
- GitHub: GitHub Copilot for Business is now available
- Cursor: Changelog
Related NHI Mgmt Group resources: AI IDE and Coding Agent Security Guide · AI Coding Agents Security Guide · AI Coding Assistant Buyer's Guide · AI coding tools hub