Which tools do Claude, Codex and Cursor choose? We measured 17k runs to find out
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Armature measured 17k sessions to analyze which tools coding agents recommend and install.
Armature ran 16,893 experiments using Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor across 75 repositories with 1,163 prompt variations and four developer personas. They found agents disagree on tool choices in 58% of cases. Claude Code builds in-house 19% of the time versus 10% for Codex and Cursor. Repository context strongly influenced picks: Resend won on TypeScript, Sendgrid on Python. Stripe won 90% of payment sessions; Neon won 66% for databases. Supabase, LangChain, PayPal, and Netlify were frequently mentioned but rarely selected. The study is part of Armature's growth consultancy for dev tools.
What commenters are saying
The top comment by Armature's co-founder presented key findings. Many commenters expressed strong distrust of the study's premise, viewing it as an attempt to game AI recommendations similar to SEO manipulation that degraded web search. Several warned this would lead to sponsored agent answers, with one commenter calling it "scum." Another comment criticized the website's mobile user experience with intrusive popups. One commenter noted this concentration effect may favor incumbents. A practical observation: Gemini CLI does web research automatically, while Claude often requires an explicit prompt to search.