Cohere acquires AI code reviewer cubic, which will stay in service

Canadian AI company Cohere disclosed its acquisition of cubic, a code review tool for GitHub, on Nov. 13. Cubic founder Paul Sanglé-Ferrière said the same day that the product would keep running and that its team would continue supporting it. Cohere also announced the completion of its purchase of Czech cybersecurity company AISLE. AISLE had reported the close three days earlier, on Nov. 10.

The immediate change for engineering teams using cubic is the product’s ownership. Cubic’s team will continue working on the reviewer as part of Cohere. The buyer says the team will also build its secure software development business. The announcements set out those responsibilities and the commitment to existing customers. The companies did not disclose the value of either deal or a release date for new capabilities in Cohere’s platform.

Where cubic leaves its first review

Cubic works inside a GitHub pull request, the proposal to merge a set of changes into a project. Once a repository is connected, the app reads new pull requests and leaves comments about possible bugs or improvements. Developers can examine the rationale in the same place as the proposed change. Cubic’s documentation also describes a change summary and reviews that apply a team’s own rules.

The current app covers GitHub repositories. GitLab and Bitbucket are outside the support listed in the developer documentation. A pull request with more than 200 eligible files triggers a selection of up to 200 files, prioritized for review. For a change already open when the app was installed, users can request a separate review. Those details set the scope of the first pass a team sees in the pull request.

Commenting and submitting a GitHub approval are separate actions. Cubic’s automatic approval is off by default, and teams set approval criteria per repository. Its shadow mode adds a note about whether a change would qualify. In live mode it can submit an approval under the repository’s policy. Required GitHub checks and code owner rules still apply.

The pricing page checked Nov. 15 listed the Team tier at $40 per developer per month on monthly billing, with 40,000 reviewed lines per developer each month. The meter counts added and deleted lines checked in completed GitHub reviews. Those are cubic’s published terms for the current service.

Paid seats contribute to a shared allowance. For example, five seats on monthly billing contribute 200,000 reviewed lines per billing period. Teams that enable extra capacity can add it in $20 blocks of 10,000 lines. Cubic’s documentation says new GitHub reviews pause if a team exhausts its capacity and adds none, while existing comments remain in the pull request.

Two dates for the AISLE deal

AISLE announced the proposed combination with Cohere on Oct. 15. On Nov. 10, it reported that the transaction had closed and said it was serving customers under the name Cohere Cyber. Cohere’s Nov. 13 post announced the completion alongside the addition of cubic. Cubic separately confirmed its acquisition and support plans that day without giving an exact closing time.

Cohere plans to expand AISLE’s presence in Prague and make the city a hub for its AI cybersecurity work. AISLE co-founder Ondrej Vlcek will lead the new business. Co-founder Jaya Baloo will oversee information security for Cohere, and Stanislav Fort will lead AI security research and work with the teams training its models. Cohere described its investment in Prague as long-term and supplied no amount or opening date for any additional facilities.

The enterprise plan and the service customers use today

Cohere links both acquisitions to work for customers that want greater control over where AI and sensitive information are handled. An organization operating software on its own servers or in an isolated network can manage the environment in which code is processed. Cohere says it intends to bring cubic’s review expertise into products for organizations with such deployment requirements. The AISLE team will support the company’s work on cyber defense for enterprises and public bodies. Release timing and the deployment options for the new offering remain open.