Coding CLIs in mid-2026: the engineer's map (and what changed in 30 days)

Short summary

Reorganizes AI coding CLIs by workflow shape (terminal, desktop, cloud web, async agent), tracking 30 days of market consolidation: tool retirements (Phind, Gemini CLI), rebrands (Windsurf→Devin, Le Chat→Vibe), and pricing shifts (Devin's enterprise floor collapsed). All serious CLIs now accept OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-Messages endpoints; provider/model/cost is the live differentiation axis.

• •Four categories of AI coding tools mapped by where engineers work: CLI (terminal), Desktop (IDE), Cloud Web (browser), Cloud Agent (async offload)
• •30-day market update: EOL tools (Phind, Gemini CLI, Roo Code), major rebrands (Windsurf→Devin Desktop, Le Chat→Vibe), Devin pricing restructure (enterprise-only fee removed)
• •Protocol wars settled—all serious tools accept OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-Messages; focus now on model choice, token cost, and local inference (Ollama/LM Studio) flexibility

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.