Graphite Review 2026: Stacked PRs, AI Review & Pricing

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Last verified: October 12, 2026. This is an editorial research review — how we review. Prices and plans change often; confirm on the vendor’s site.

Status update: Graphite signed a definitive agreement in December 2025 to be acquired by Cursor (Anysphere), and Cursor was acquired by SpaceX in August 2026. Graphite still operates under its own brand. A separate closing date for the Graphite deal was not found.

Graphite began as a tool for one specific workflow: stacked pull requests. Instead of one large PR, you split a change into a chain of small, dependent PRs that can be reviewed and merged in order. Around that idea it built a CLI, a faster pull request inbox and page for GitHub, and a stack-aware merge queue. It then added AI review, first under the name Diamond and, since October 2025, as Graphite Agent.

Ownership is the most important recent change. In December 2025 Graphite signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Cursor (made by Anysphere), the AI code editor company. Cursor itself was acquired by SpaceX in August 2026. Graphite still operates and sells under its own brand. Its site now sends sales enquiries to Cursor and ships integrations with Cursor’s cloud agents. We did not find a separate public announcement confirming the date the Graphite deal closed.

This is an editorial research review based on Graphite’s and Cursor’s documentation, pricing pages, blogs and changelogs as of October 2026, not on hands-on testing. It is for GitHub-based teams deciding whether Graphite’s combined review workflow and AI reviewer is worth adopting.

Quick verdict

Graphite is the most complete option here if your problem is the whole code review workflow, not just the lack of a review bot. Stacked PRs, a redesigned PR page, a merge queue and unlimited AI reviews on the Team plan come as one package. The limits are just as clear. It works only with GitHub, cannot be self-hosted, and its long-term roadmap now depends on how Cursor combines it with Cursor’s own review and code-hosting products.

Pro: Stacked PRs, with a CLI, VS Code extension and stack-aware merge queue, are mature and well documented.
Pro: The Team plan includes unlimited AI reviews and AI chat at a flat per-user price, with no per-review metering.
Pro: AI features are opt-in, code indexing is opt-in, and Graphite says neither it nor its AI subprocessors train on your data.
Pro: Cursor Cloud Agents can create and update PRs from inside Graphite for users with a paid Cursor plan.
Con: GitHub only. GitHub Enterprise Server requires an Enterprise contract, and there is no self-hosted deployment.
Con: Starter and Hobby include only “limited” AI reviews, with no published number.
Con: Published prices are annual rates, so check what monthly billing costs.
Con: The roadmap is less predictable after two changes of ownership in under a year.

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What is Graphite?

Graphite calls itself “the AI code review platform where teams ship higher quality code, faster.” It is built on GitHub’s APIs. You keep your repositories on GitHub, and Graphite provides its own interface and tools for creating, reviewing and merging pull requests, all synced back to GitHub.

The product has several layers: the gt CLI for stacking, a VS Code extension, a PR inbox, a redesigned PR page, Graphite Agent for AI review and chat, a merge queue, automations and team insights. In 2026 Graphite added Cursor Cloud Agents (March) and Code Tours (April), which turns a PR into a guided walkthrough for reviewers.

When the Cursor deal was announced, Graphite said it would “continue to operate as an independent product” and that its “product and brand aren’t going anywhere.” It also said it planned to combine “the best of” Graphite’s AI reviewer with Cursor’s own review bot, Bugbot. Cursor has since launched its own Git hosting product, Origin, in early beta (August 2026). Neither company has published a detailed plan for how Graphite, Bugbot and Origin will fit together. Buyers signing long contracts should ask about this directly.

Key features

Graphite Agent AI reviews

Graphite Agent reviews every PR in the repositories you enable, using codebase context. According to its documentation, it focuses on logic errors, edge cases and performance problems rather than style, and suggests concrete fixes. Teams can write custom rules as prompts, starting from templates for style guides, security and accessibility. They can also point rules at standards documents in the repository, add exclusions for comments they do not want, and limit reviews by author, path, label or branch. A dashboard shows the acceptance rate for each rule.

Graphite Chat

Chat sits on the PR page and can explain code, help fix CI failures and make edits. Graphite’s October 2025 relaunch combined the reviewer and chat under the Graphite Agent name so that feedback can be acted on directly.

Stacked PRs: CLI, VS Code extension and MCP

The gt CLI creates, restacks and syncs chains of dependent branches. The VS Code extension provides a visual interface for the same work. Graphite also documents a GT MCP server for connecting AI tools to the stacking CLI, which is relevant when agents produce many small, related changes.

PR inbox, PR page and Code Tours

The inbox gathers PRs from many repositories with custom filters. The PR page was redesigned in late 2025. Code Tours, introduced in April 2026, turns a PR’s description, discussion, stack and code into a step-by-step walkthrough beside the diff.

Stack-aware merge queue

The merge queue lands PRs in order while keeping the main branch passing, and it understands stacks. The Team plan includes a basic version, and advanced settings are Enterprise features.

Cursor Cloud Agents in Graphite

Since March 2026, users can describe a task in Graphite and have a Cursor cloud agent write the code and open a draft PR, or ask an agent to update an existing PR from the sidebar. This requires a signed-in Cursor account on a paid plan (Pro and above). Graphite’s agents documentation says code is processed only to complete the task and is not stored or used for training.

Who should use Graphite

Graphite fits GitHub-based teams, especially fast-moving product teams and monorepos, where large PRs and slow merges are the main bottleneck, and that want AI review with no usage metering. Teams that already use Cursor gain the most from the agents integration.

Who should skip it

Skip it if you host code anywhere other than GitHub, if you need a self-hosted or air-gapped reviewer, or if you only want a review bot and do not plan to adopt stacked PRs. Organisations that need long-term vendor certainty may want to wait until Cursor clarifies how Graphite fits with its own products.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

A whole workflow, not just a bot. Stacking, a faster review interface, merge queue and AI review are designed to work together. For teams that struggle with large PRs and slow merges, that tackles the root cause rather than adding comments to big diffs.
Predictable AI cost. Unlimited AI reviews and chat on the Team plan avoid the per-review or per-credit metering many rivals use. That matters when agents open many PRs.
Conservative data defaults. AI features are opt-in, Graphite does not store your code by default, and stored code is removed within 30 days if you turn indexing off. Anthropic and OpenAI are named as AI subprocessors, and Graphite says they are contractually barred from training on your data.
Cursor integration. Teams already paying for Cursor can move agent work between the editor and the PR without switching tools.
Tunable reviewer. Rule templates, exclusions, PR-level filters and per-rule acceptance metrics give leads concrete ways to cut noise.

Limitations

GitHub only. Graphite is built on GitHub’s APIs. Teams on GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure DevOps cannot use it. GitHub Enterprise Server works only on Enterprise, through an IP allow-list arrangement rather than self-service.
No self-hosting. Graphite’s documentation states that no self-hosted deployment of its service is available. Air-gapped or strictly on-premises environments need another tool.
Uncertain roadmap. Graphite is now part of Cursor’s plans, Cursor is now owned by SpaceX, and Cursor runs its own review bot and Git hosting beta. Graphite’s continuity commitments date from December 2025. Factor that uncertainty into multi-year decisions.
Limited AI on cheaper plans. Hobby and Starter users get “limited” AI reviews with no published number, which makes them hard to evaluate. Unlimited AI starts at $40 per user per month (annual).
Workflow change required. Much of Graphite’s value comes from stacked PRs and its own review interface. Teams that will not change how they split work will get less from it than from a review-only bot.
Cursor features need Cursor. The agents integration requires a separate paid Cursor subscription.

Pricing (as of October 2026)

Plan	Price	What you get
Hobby	Free	Personal repositories, stacking CLI, VS Code extension, MCP, inbox and notifications, limited AI chat and limited AI reviews
Starter	$20 per user/month, billed annually	All GitHub organisation repositories, Slack notifications, team insights; AI reviews and chat still limited
Team	$40 per user/month, billed annually	Unlimited AI reviews and chat, AI review customisation, automations, merge queue (basic); 30-day free trial
Enterprise	Custom	Advanced merge queue settings, ACLs, SAML/SSO, audit log (SIEM), GitHub Enterprise Server support, custom analytics, SLAs, custom MSA

Graphite counts seats automatically. Anyone who joins the workspace, or whose PR Graphite Agent reviews, is billed. The October 2025 announcement said the 30-day trial requires no credit card. Graphite’s pricing page and docs list only annual rates, so confirm monthly pricing and current limits on Graphite’s pricing page before you buy.

See Graphite pricing

Prices verified on October 12, 2026 against the official Graphite pricing page. Plans change often — confirm on the vendor’s page before you buy.

Use cases

Graphite is most useful when the problem is the whole review workflow on GitHub, not just the lack of a review bot. The scenarios below follow Graphite’s documented features as of October 2026, and all of them assume your code is hosted on GitHub.

Breaking large features into stacked PRs

A product team whose large PRs sit in review for days can use the gt CLI or the VS Code extension to split a feature into a chain of small, dependent PRs. Reviewers handle each piece separately, and the stack-aware merge queue lands them in order while keeping the main branch passing. The Team plan includes a basic merge queue, with advanced settings on Enterprise. The main caveat is cultural: much of the value depends on developers actually changing how they split their work.

Flat-cost AI review for teams with many agent-written PRs

Teams where coding agents open a large number of PRs can run Graphite Agent on every PR in enabled repositories, and the Team plan has no per-review or per-credit metering. That keeps AI review costs predictable as PR volume grows. Graphite counts seats automatically, billing anyone who joins the workspace or whose PR Graphite Agent reviews, so leads should check how agent-authored PRs are counted before scaling up.

Moving work between Cursor agents and the PR

Teams already paying for Cursor can describe a task in Graphite and have a Cursor cloud agent write the code and open a draft PR, or ask an agent to update an existing PR from the sidebar. This keeps agent work and review in one place. It requires a signed-in Cursor account on a paid plan (Pro and above), and Graphite’s agents documentation says code is processed only to complete the task and is not stored or used for training.

Helping reviewers understand unfamiliar changes

Reviewers picking up a PR in an unfamiliar part of the codebase can use Code Tours, introduced in April 2026, which turns a PR’s description, discussion, stack and code into a step-by-step walkthrough beside the diff. Graphite Chat on the PR page can also explain code and help fix CI failures. In our assessment, combined with an inbox that gathers PRs from many repositories, this suits leads who review across several teams.

Tuning AI review to cut noise

A tech lead whose team ignores most bot comments can write Graphite Agent rules as prompts, starting from templates for style guides, security and accessibility, and can point rules at standards documents in the repository. Exclusions and filters by author, path, label or branch control where and what the agent reviews. A dashboard shows the acceptance rate for each rule, which gives the lead evidence for which rules to keep. Graphite lists AI review customisation as a Team plan feature.

Alternatives

CodeRabbit is a review-focused bot that works across GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOps, with self-hosting for large Enterprise customers.
Greptile offers deep, codebase-graph-aware review with selectable effort tiers and air-gapped self-hosting.
GitHub Copilot includes code review on paid Copilot plans and works directly in GitHub’s own PR interface.
Cursor Bugbot is Cursor’s own AI reviewer for GitHub pull requests, an obvious comparison for teams already on Cursor.

Final verdict

Graphite is the strongest choice in this category for GitHub teams that want to fix the review workflow as a whole, with stacked PRs, a merge queue and unlimited AI review in one product at a flat price. Its GitHub-only scope, lack of self-hosting and post-acquisition roadmap are real constraints. Run the 30-day trial on a team that is willing to try stacking, and ask about Cursor’s product plans before signing an annual contract.

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FAQ

Is Graphite free?

Graphite’s Hobby plan is free for personal repositories and includes the stacking CLI, VS Code extension, MCP and inbox, but only “limited” AI reviews and chat, with no published number. Unlimited AI reviews and chat start on the Team plan, which has a 30-day free trial that Graphite’s October 2025 announcement said requires no credit card. Graphite publishes annual rates, so confirm monthly pricing on its pricing page.

Does Graphite work with GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure DevOps?

No. Graphite is built on GitHub’s APIs and works only with GitHub. GitHub Enterprise Server is supported only on the Enterprise plan, through an IP allow-list arrangement rather than self-service. Teams on other Git hosts should look at CodeRabbit, Qodo or, unless they use Azure DevOps, Greptile.

Who owns Graphite now?

In December 2025 Graphite signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Cursor (Anysphere), and Cursor was itself acquired by SpaceX in August 2026. Graphite still operates and sells under its own brand, and when the deal was announced it said its “product and brand aren’t going anywhere.” We did not find a separate public announcement confirming when the Graphite deal closed. Neither company has published a detailed plan for how Graphite fits with Cursor’s own review and code-hosting products, so ask about it before signing a multi-year contract.

Does Graphite train on my code?

Graphite says neither it nor its AI subprocessors train on your data. AI features and code indexing are opt-in, Graphite does not store your code by default, and stored code is removed within 30 days if you turn indexing off. Anthropic and OpenAI are named as AI subprocessors, and Graphite says they are contractually barred from training on your data.

Can Graphite be self-hosted?

No. Graphite’s documentation states that no self-hosted deployment of its service is available. Teams that need on-premises or air-gapped AI review should consider Greptile or Qodo, both of which offer self-hosting on their Enterprise plans.

Graphite vs Cursor Bugbot: what is the difference?

Bugbot is Cursor’s own AI reviewer for GitHub pull requests, while Graphite combines AI review with stacked PRs, a merge queue and its own PR interface. When the acquisition was announced, Graphite said it planned to combine “the best of” its AI reviewer with Bugbot, but neither company has published how that will work. In our assessment, Graphite makes more sense if you want to change the whole review workflow, while teams that only want a review bot alongside Cursor may find Bugbot the more direct comparison.

Graphite Review (2026): Stacked PRs and AI Code Review, Now Under Cursor