OpenAI said Nov. 4 it would acquire Pierre Computer Company, the developer behind Code Storage and open-source code-review tools, expanding its effort to manage how software is stored and reviewed through Codex.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The companies will remain independent until closing, which is subject to customary conditions, including regulatory approvals. OpenAI did not announce a closing date.
Existing tools and future integration
Pierre’s software is already used in Codex. OpenAI said the application uses Pierre’s Trees library for file navigation and Diffs for reviewing changes. The acquisition would bring the company behind those components into OpenAI.
Code Storage is a separate service that lets applications store files and maintain their version history using Git. OpenAI plans to bring its features into Codex; it did not announce that integration as a completed product.
On its product site, Pierre describes Code Storage as a programmable storage system, with repository access through software interfaces and synchronization with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket. The service can store generated code, documents and other files that change over time, according to Pierre.
OpenAI said Pierre’s open-source projects would retain that status and that it would continue contributing to them. It also said Code Storage customers could keep using the service after closing while integration work proceeds.
A wider source-control effort
The proposed acquisition follows OpenAI’s Nov. 2 description of Pando, an internally developed backend for Git repositories. OpenAI said Pando now supports development in its shared code repository while preserving the Git workflows its engineers use.
That engineering account described a scaling problem: more parallel work by people and coding agents produces more branches, changes and requests for repository data. Pando addresses the infrastructure serving that work; Pierre’s tools also cover navigating and reviewing the resulting code.
OpenAI said it was exploring ways to share Pando’s technology with users. It did not announce a public Pando service launch. Neither announcement sets out a customer migration requirement or announces a public GitHub replacement.
Rapid News Brief.
Disclosure: OpenAI software assisted with research and drafting of this report.
Sources: OpenAI’s acquisition announcement; Code Storage; OpenAI’s Pando engineering account; Axios, syndicated by Yahoo.