Claude Code vs Codex CLI vs Gemini CLI Which AI Coding Tool Is Moving Fastest
Havoptic counted 118 releases across 8 AI coding tools in September 2026. Here is who ships fastest, who leads on downloads, and what the numbers do not tell you.
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AI coding tools that run in your terminal now ship updates almost daily. Havoptic, which tracks release data across eight of them, counted 118 releases in September 2026, up 39% from August. Release speed is not the same as quality, but it shows where the energy is. This post summarizes the data and explains how to read it.
September 2026 release leaderboard
Tool | Releases | Change vs August | Average days between releases |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Code | 27 | -1 | 1.1 |
Grok Build | 25 | +7 | 1.1 |
Antigravity CLI | 21 | +8 | 1.4 |
OpenAI Codex CLI | 20 | +12 | 1.6 |
GitHub Copilot CLI | 7 | +2 | 4.4 |
Kiro CLI | 7 | +3 | 4.8 |
Devin Desktop | 6 | +2 | 4.2 |
Gemini CLI | 5 | 0 | 7.0 |
Cursor | 0 | 0 | Not applicable |
Codex CLI accelerated the most, going from 8 releases in August to 20 in September. Of the 118 releases, 22 were minor version bumps and 96 were patches. None were major releases.
Adoption: GitHub stars and npm downloads
Tool | GitHub stars | npm weekly downloads | Downloads trend |
|---|---|---|---|
OpenAI Codex CLI | 127,484 | 25,653,416 | +18.6% |
Claude Code | 148,773 | 14,495,496 | +8.6% |
Gemini CLI | 107,216 | 450,374 | +6.7% |
GitHub Copilot CLI | 11,234 | 1,305 | -8.4% |
Grok Build | 27,176 | Not tracked | Not tracked |
Antigravity CLI | 2,439 | Not tracked | Not tracked |
Codex CLI leads on weekly npm downloads and Claude Code on GitHub stars. Download counts are an imperfect signal, since tools distribute in different ways and Copilot CLI may be installed through other channels.
Notable September releases
Claude Code 2.1.284 (September 28): uses Claude Sonnet 5.5 by default with a 1M context window, and adds finer permission prompts so you can approve individual file reads.
OpenAI Codex CLI rust-v0.156.0 (September 22): voice conversations on by default, a fullscreen UI with transcript search, and clearer usage and token spending.
GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.85 (September 16): Vim mode for everyone and new /settings and /config commands.
Gemini CLI 0.62.0 (September 29): better authentication token handling and smoother tool integration.
Kiro CLI 2.24.0 (September 23): streamlined tool approvals across sessions.
Devin Desktop 3.10.23 (September 10): connect to remote agents over SSH with automatic session recovery.
Havoptic also notes that features get copied quickly. Background Tasks, first shipped by Claude Code, reached Grok Build and Codex CLI more than a year later.
What the numbers do not tell you
Releases are not quality. Most releases are patches. A tool can ship daily and still be worse for your project.
Cursor shows zero here because Havoptic tracked no releases for it in the month. That does not mean it stopped developing.
Vendor data is a snapshot. One month can swing. Havoptic's totals ranged from 70 to 144 per month over the past year.
How to choose a tool
Pick two tools and give them the same small task, such as adding a feature with tests to a real repository.
Compare how each handles permissions. You want clear prompts before it reads secrets or runs commands.
Check your model needs: context size, speed and cost.
Look at your workflow. Terminal users may prefer a CLI, and editor users may prefer an IDE based tool.
Review for yourself. Keep tests and code review in place whichever tool you use.
