OpenAI plans to buy code storage startup Pierre Computer

OpenAI announced plans to buy Pierre Computer Company Inc., and the terms were not disclosed. Pierre runs a cloud service where AI agents can store the code they generate, along with files such as software licenses and interface design elements. The company says its service performs significantly better than competing technologies, and it helped the AI startup Lovable cut code retrieval latency by about 70%.

Pierre also maintains a set of open-source libraries, two of which, Trees and Diffs, underpin the interface of OpenAI's Codex. Trees adds a folder navigation sidebar with search and drag-and-drop controls and flags recently added or updated files. Diffs highlights the exact lines that changed in a code file and can display those changes inline or in a separate section.

OpenAI says it will keep offering Trees and Diffs under an open-source license after the deal closes and plans to bring the features of Pierre's paid code hosting service into Codex. The Pierre team will work on software that optimizes coding agents, with a focus on streamlining agent workflows that involve Git. All three of Pierre's offerings, Trees, Diffs and the paid storage service, have built-in Git support.

Trees and Diffs are slated to stay open source after the deal closes, so developers who build on them have a stated path to keep using them. Pierre's paid hosting features are planned to move into Codex, which may change how and where that service is offered. Teams that store agent-generated code with Pierre should plan for possible changes to that service once the acquisition is complete.