Did OpenAI just acqui-hire Cline?

It looks like OpenAI may have acqui-hired the @Cline team. It's not currently clear what that means for the future of the AI coding agent as a project, as their team members are now on the @Codex by OpenAI team.

Any open-source alternatives? @Kilo Code? @Zed? else?

Update 2026-01-30: Cline clarified, they’re operational and there was no transaction with OpenAI.