--- title: "Cork vs Graphite: coordinating agents before the PR, or reviewing after it · Cork" description: "Cork vs Graphite: Graphite stacks, reviews and merges pull requests; Cork keeps parallel AI coding agents from colliding before a PR ever exists." canonical: "https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-graphite" last_updated: "2026-11-14" published: "2026-10-03" author: "Kevin Vera" --- # Cork vs Graphite: coordinating agents before the PR, or reviewing after it Cork vs Graphite: Graphite stacks, reviews and merges pull requests; Cork keeps parallel AI coding agents from colliding before a PR ever exists. By Kevin Vera · October 3, 2026 · [Comparisons](https://corkcli.com/blog/c/comparisons) · 7 min read How is Cork different from Graphite? Graphite is a code review platform on top of GitHub: stacked pull requests, AI reviews, and a stack-aware merge queue that keeps the main branch green. Cork works earlier, while agents are still writing code: it briefs each agent on what it is about to touch, tells it when a teammate's change affects it, and holds an edit that would land on code another agent is changing right now. In short, Graphite handles what happens after code becomes a pull request; Cork handles what happens before. They solve adjacent problems and work well together. ## Cork vs Graphite at a glance | Topic | Cork | Graphite (as of October 2026) | |---|---|---| | What it is | [Coordination layer](https://corkcli.com/blog/coordination-layer-ai-coding-agents) for many coding agents and the people running them | "The AI code review platform": stacked PRs, AI reviews, merge queue, CLI and VS Code extension | | When it acts | While agents edit code and when they land it | When code is a pull request: review, stacking, merging | | Where agents run | Wherever they already run; Cork does not run agents | Graphite does not run your local agents; it now includes Cursor Cloud Agents in the PR page | | Agents covered | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, plus any MCP client | GT MCP (beta) documents setup for Cursor and Claude Code | | Conflict handling | Write gate during edits, semantic lint after renames, rebase plus tests at landing | Merge queue "prevents [semantic merge conflicts](https://corkcli.com/blog/semantic-merge-conflicts) by automating the rebase process during merge" | | Install | `curl -fsSL https://corkcli.com/install.sh \| sh` | GitHub app plus the `gt` CLI (Homebrew or npm) | | Ownership | Lithometric | Acquired by Cursor (agreement announced December 19, 2025); operating independently | | Pricing | Free (local, and 10 agent hours a month in the cloud); $20 a month per 100 agent hours, pooled | Hobby free, Starter $20/user/month, Team $40/user/month (annual), Enterprise custom | ## What is Graphite? Graphite calls itself "the AI code review platform where teams ship higher quality code, faster." It is built on GitHub and centers on stacked pull requests: splitting a large change into a sequence of small PRs so reviewers can approve them in order while the author keeps building. The `gt` CLI offers "simple commands that help you spend less time wrangling with git." Around that, Graphite adds AI reviews ("High signal AI reviews on every PR to catch critical bugs and get suggested fixes, pre-merge"), Graphite Chat in the PR page, and a merge queue. The queue "prevents semantic merge conflicts by automating the rebase process during merge and ensures that the trunk branch stays 'green'," and because it is stack-aware it can validate a whole stack in parallel. For agents, GT MCP (beta, `gt` 1.6.7 or later) "allows AI agents to automatically create stacked PRs, breaking down large AI-generated changes into smaller, reviewable stacked pull requests," with documented setup for Cursor and Claude Code. In December 2025 Cursor announced a definitive agreement to acquire Graphite, saying "Graphite will continue to operate independently with the same team and product." ## What is Cork? Cork (corkcli.com, by Lithometric) keeps several AI coding agents, and the people running them, from overwriting each other on one codebase, and hands each agent what the others already learned. It does not run agents or host machines. Hooks in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor run the protocol with no extra model calls, and an MCP server at https://mcp.corkcli.com works with any MCP client. - **Briefing:** each agent is handed the exact signatures, callers and recent changes of the code it is about to touch. - **Live awareness:** when another agent changes code yours depends on, your agent hears it on its next step. - **[Write gate](https://corkcli.com/blog/write-gate):** an edit against code another agent is changing right now is held until your agent has their version. - **[Semantic lint](https://corkcli.com/blog/semantic-lint):** a teammate's rename or signature change becomes a lint rule your agents are checked against. - **Landing:** `git push` becomes one step that rebases onto teammates' commits, reruns the tests and pushes. - **Agent messaging and MCP tools:** message whoever is working on a function; get_symbol, blast_radius, recap, remember/recall. ## Where Graphite stands out - **Stacked PRs done well.** The CLI, VS Code extension and PR inbox make small, sequenced pull requests practical for a whole team. - **A stack-aware merge queue.** It rebases during merge, keeps trunk green, and can validate an entire stack in parallel. Cork has no merge queue. - **AI review.** Graphite reviews every PR for bugs and suggests fixes. Cork does not review code. - **Agent output made reviewable.** GT MCP lets Cursor and Claude Code split a large AI-generated diff into a stack. - **Backing.** Graphite is being acquired by Cursor, and Cursor Cloud Agents already appear inside Graphite's PR page. ## Where Cork wins - **Earlier in the loop.** By the time Graphite sees a PR, two agents may already have built on incompatible versions of the same function. Cork's live awareness and write gate act while the code is being written. - **Agents arrive informed.** Each agent gets a briefing on the signatures, callers and recent changes it is about to touch, so it searches less. Graphite's context lives in the PR page. - **Semantic changes between agents.** A teammate's rename becomes a lint rule your agents are checked against before anything is pushed. - **Local agents across tools.** Cork coordinates Claude Code, Codex and Cursor agents running on your and your teammates' machines. ## Can you use both? Yes, and they fit end to end. Cork keeps parallel agents from colliding while they write code and turns `git push` into a rebase plus test run. Graphite then takes over: stacking the result, reviewing it with AI and humans, and landing it through the merge queue. A merge queue catches conflicts at the last moment; Cork reduces how many reach it. ## Pricing compared Graphite's published pricing as of October 2026: Hobby is free (personal repos, CLI for stacked PRs, limited AI reviews); Starter is $20 per user per month billed annually (all GitHub organization repos); Team is $40 per user per month billed annually (unlimited AI reviews and Graphite Chat, merge queue); Enterprise is custom (advanced merge queue settings, SAML, audit log, GHES support). Cork Free runs locally with unlimited agents and repos on one machine, no account, and all data on the machine. Cloud Free gives each account 10 agent hours a month (30 bonus hours the first month), unlimited repos and agents, and a 30-day history window. Beyond that you pay for agent hours, not seats: $20 a month per unit of 100 hours, pooled across the workspace, graduated to $17 (units 11 to 50) and $15 (51 and up), with 15% off a year. Enterprise starts from about 100 units. In Cork's benchmark (12 Claude Code agents at once on one repository, hard tasks), agents with Cork used 53% fewer tokens than the same agents without it. ## Bottom line Graphite is a review and merge platform, and a very good one for stacked PRs and keeping trunk green. It does not coordinate agents while they are writing code. Cork is that coordination layer, so agent merge conflicts are caught at the edit instead of in the queue. Teams running multiple AI coding agents can reasonably use both. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Cork an alternative to Graphite? No. Graphite reviews, stacks and merges pull requests. Cork coordinates agents before a pull request exists. They complement each other. ### Does Graphite stop AI agents from overwriting each other? Graphite works at the pull request level. Its merge queue rebases during merge and keeps trunk green, but it does not watch agents while they edit. Cork's write gate holds an edit against code another agent is changing right now. ### Can Claude Code create stacked PRs with Graphite? Yes. GT MCP, in beta and built into the `gt` CLI from version 1.6.7, documents setup for Claude Code and Cursor so agents can split large changes into stacked PRs. ### Did Cursor buy Graphite? Cursor announced a definitive agreement to acquire Graphite on December 19, 2025, and said Graphite would continue to operate independently with the same team and product. ### Does Cork have a merge queue? No. Cork's landing step rebases onto teammates' commits, reruns the tests and pushes. If you want a merge queue, use one like Graphite's alongside Cork. ## Sources Checked October 2026: - - - - - - - ## Related reading - [Cork vs Vibe Kanban: a board for agents vs a guard for shared code](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-vibe-kanban): Cork vs Vibe Kanban: Vibe Kanban plans and runs coding agents in worktrees from a kanban board. Cork keeps parallel agents from colliding at merge. - [Cork vs Hoplite: cloud agents vs coordinating the agents you have](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-hoplite): Cork vs Hoplite: Hoplite runs coding agents in isolated cloud environments that open PRs. Cork keeps your local parallel agents from colliding. - [Cork vs GitHub Copilot coding agent: one PR per task, or many agents in sync](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-github-copilot-coding-agent): Cork vs GitHub Copilot coding agent: Copilot turns issues into pull requests from GitHub Actions; Cork keeps parallel agents from overwriting shared code. - [How to review pull requests from several AI agents at once](https://corkcli.com/blog/review-pull-requests-from-multiple-ai-agents): Review pull requests from several AI coding agents at once: triage with gh, review for cross-PR conflicts, use CODEOWNERS, AI review passes and a merge queue. 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