OpenAI Hires Git AI Founders to Help Codex Prove Its ROI

OpenAI has hired the founders of Git AI, an open-source tool that tracks how much code is written by AI and measures the performance and cost of coding agents.

The Same Mission, Bigger Stage

Aidan Cunniffe, co-founder of Git AI, noted on LinkedIn that he and his co-founder Sasha Varlamov will be joining OpenAI's Codex team. They will work on giving businesses better data on how coding agents perform and the returns they generate. Cunniffe writes, "Same mission, bigger stage."

Integration Plans and Goals

While details of the precise integration plans are scant, OpenAI's Thibault Sottiaux confirmed on X that the company wants to use Git AI's technology to help businesses understand the impact of Codex. Sottiaux writes, "We'll make it easier for businesses to see where Codex is making a difference when working through problems for individuals and teams."

Shared Focus on Measuring AI Performance

Cunniffe notes that the tie-up reflects a shared focus on measuring the performance and value of AI coding tools. "OpenAI shares our belief that users should have the data to compare model performance and understand the ROI of every token they spend." He writes, "OpenAI shares our belief that users should have the data to compare model performance and understand the ROI of every token they spend."

Tracking AI-Generated Code

Git AI is an open-source Git extension that tracks AI-generated code. Every line of code is linked to the agent, model, and prompts that generated it, preserving the context behind a change even after the code has been committed, merged, or rebased. The tool supports a broad range of coding agents, including OpenAI Codex, Anthropic's Claude Code, Cursor, and Google's Gemini CLI.

The Story So Far

Cunniffe has been here before. He founded developer tooling startup Optic in 2018, which built open-source tools around API development. He subsequently joined Atlassian as a principal product manager leading go-to-market efforts for developer tools. Git AI began as a side project in the summer of 2025, initially trying to answer the question of how much code was being written by AI and what happened to that code afterwards.

The Future of Git AI

It is not yet clear what the hiring means for Git AI as a commercial business, but with both founders joining OpenAI, it appears likely that the standalone business will be wound down, while the open-source project continues. Cunniffe says OpenAI will continue backing the open-source project. "We'll keep investing in open source, while also giving enterprises the data they need to build effective software factories."