For as long as we can remember, GitHub has been the de facto code server of choice for most developers. However, in recent times, the platform has had problems with widely reported interruptions and performance degradation, and as you drop the ball, Cursor is waiting to pick it up.
The AI startup, which is now officially part of SpaceXlaunched Origin this week, a new code hosting platform designed to do all the things developers typically use GitHub for: work collaboratively on codebases, explore and edit them, handle pull requests (edits made by others requesting to be added to the main codebase), and store them in repositories.
This seems like a natural next step for Cursor, whose primary focus up to this point has been selling automated web development services through your AI code editor. Cursor has also said that “agent-native” features will soon be available for Origin, although it hasn’t shared many details yet. The company also says it is building a broader “application ecosystem” to support broader coding efforts within Origin.
Interestingly, using Origin does not require the user to stop using GitHub. In fact, Origin is designed to allow developers to work alongside GitHub and pass code between the two in an interoperable way.
“Your GitHub repositories can be located next to those hosted by Cursor”, Cursor he says on his blog. “Connect GitHub to Cursor, choose your organization, and you’ll see the repositories you can sync. Select one and Cursor will onboard it.”
The launch of Origin coincides with continuous frustration due to a perceived drop in GitHub services. In fact, the same day Cursor launched its new platform, GitHub suffered a fairly prolonged global blackout. For more than six hours, the site functions were reportedly degraded, with almost 20% error rate worldwide.
This is not the first time this has happened. any. Earlier this year, after a series of outages, GitHub announced new actions to satiate disgruntled programmers as their availability problems seemed to intensify. More generally, the platform has suffered 257 cuts over the past year, says a recent LeadDev analysis. These persistent problems have led to “a visible exodus of high-profile users,” writes LeadDev reporter Charles Humble.
Still, if Cursor wants to compete with GitHub, it will have a lot of work ahead of it. According to GitHub’s own metrics, Some 180 million developers use its platform. starting last October. The platform, founded in 2007 and acquired by Microsoft in 2012, is still the largest source code server in the world.
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