Augment Code is an AI coding platform whose core is the Context Engine, a real-time semantic index of the codebase that feeds its Auggie CLI agent and the Cosmos agent orchestration platform.
Augment makes the strongest documented claim in the context-engine space, that retrieval quality cuts agent token spend by a third at matched quality, and every number behind it is vendor-run, so buyer-side replication is the actual missing feature.
What it is #
The retrieval layer is the product; everything else is a container for it.
The Context Engine indexes code, dependencies, docs, and commit history, and retrieves “the slice the task touches” before the model spends tokens exploring, with permission-aware access.
Auggie CLI is the terminal agent; its v2 (2026) is a fork of the open-source Pi harness with the Context Engine plugged in as an extension that registers a single codebase-retrieval tool.
Cosmos (launched June 3, 2026) runs fleets of “Expert” agents on triggers (PR opened, alert fired, cron), with the Prism model router, sandboxed VMs, a self-hosted daemon option, and YAML-as-code review of the whole factory.
Intent, the newest surface, is a MacOS app for large-scale agent coordination: every task runs in its own isolated workspace, a Coordinator agent writes a living spec per task so all agents in the workspace build from the same plan, and the CLI agents underneath are swappable; since October 2026 the app is distributed as open source from its own intent-hq GitHub organization (an Apache-2.0 monorepo carrying the daemon, the front end, and the iOS client, with a stable release channel and a mobile companion app, product page re-checked 2026-10-17).
Everything is closed-source SaaS with SOC 2 Type II, ISO 42001, zero data retention options, and a no-training-on-your-code commitment; enterprise logos include Adobe, MongoDB, and Webflow.
Status #
Absorbed into Harness: on October 8, 2026 the company announced the sale of Cosmos, Auggie CLI, the Code Context Engine, and related technology to Harness, with the team moving over to continue them there. Blog cadence ran multiple posts per month through September 11, 2026 (Cosmos launch, GPT-5.6 Sol as default in July, the Auggie harness rebuild, further PR-to-merge loop optimization, and a Software Factory buildout post), then went quiet until the October 8 acquisition announcement. The October 20, 2025 pricing change triggered a community revolt; the company’s own Reddit response admitted 22.5% of users were consuming 20x what they paid, and the HN thread documents broken grandfathering promises. The pricing page was still selling the current plans, with no free tier, as of 2026-10-24 (the blog’s newest post remains the October 8 acquisition announcement, re-checked 2026-10-24 via the blog index and sitemap). I could not verify funding history from primary sources in this run (the company pages do not state it and Wikipedia has no article), which is itself a signal: the public record for this company is mostly its own marketing.
Strengths #
- Benchmark transparency is above the field’s average: the Terminal Bench 2.0 and SWE-bench Pro runs publish token categories and methodology (Harbor framework, five attempts per task), claiming 33% lower spend at equal pass rate vs Claude Code on Opus 4.7, and 41% lower on private-repo internal evals.
- The harness rebuild post is unusually concrete engineering: tool-surface narrowing to one bash and three file tools, proactive compaction on a cheaper model, and a measured 53% cheaper per SWE-bench Pro task ($1.27 vs $2.70) at matched pass rate.
- Flat, no-per-seat pricing now comes in two tiers (Standard $20/month, Business $100/month, each up to 50 seats, plan structure as of 2026-09-22), a rare anti-seat-model move.
- Model-agnostic by design, with Prism routing claimed to add 20-30% savings on top.
Cautions #
- All efficiency claims are vendor-run against a baseline the vendor picks; no independent replication of the Context Engine numbers exists in sources I could verify.
- The usage fee structure quietly stacks: LLM usage at provider list price plus a 40% service fee on LLM spend, plus compute, on top of the plan.
- The October 2025 pricing episode and its “inference games” framing in community discussion is a live lesson in how fast plan economics can change.
- The 2026 marketing has drifted toward unfalsifiable factory metrics (customer anecdotes of “10-15x faster” delivery) that dilute the good benchmark work.
Pricing #
The flat plans are an entry point, not a ceiling: at their own published usage rates, a 50-seat team’s real bill is dominated by tokens and the 40% service fee on them. Standard is $20/month flat for up to 50 seats including $20/month of usage, and Business is $100/month flat with $100/month of usage (LLM at provider list price, 40% service fee on LLM usage, plus compute), with pooled top-ups valid 12 months (plan structure re-verified unchanged against the live pricing page 2026-10-17). Enterprise is custom (unlimited users, data residency, CMEK, SIEM, dedicated support). No free tier; trials get community support only.
Price history #
| Date | Plan | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-18 | Standard, Business | Baseline: Standard $20/mo flat (up to 50 seats, $20/mo usage included), Business $100/mo flat ($100/mo usage), 40% service fee on LLM usage, Enterprise custom, no free tier. |
Compared to #
- Sourcegraph code context platform: retrieval sold as infrastructure to any MCP agent; Augment’s engine only drives Augment’s own surfaces, but goes deeper into the harness loop.
- Claude Code: the subscription harness Augment benchmarks against; cheaper per task if Augment’s numbers replicate, but you live in their walled garden.
- Greptile: validation-only and per-seat; Augment wants the whole author-review-verify loop.
Bottom line #
Recommended for token-heavy teams on large private codebases who will re-run the benchmark on their own repos before believing it. Not for solo developers, OSS work, or anyone who cannot absorb a 40% service fee on top of model spend. My disagreeable claim: if the Context Engine numbers are even half right, harness choice matters less than retrieval quality, and flat-rate subscription harnesses are selling expensive exploration that a good index eliminates, which would make Augment’s pricing model the eventual default and their competitors’ margins the casualty.
Changes #
- 2026-08-24 - Created in the Context engines category seed.
- 2026-08-30 - Extended the blog-cadence claim to August 28, 2026 and re-dated the no-free-tier claim.
- 2026-09-04 - Added the new $20/month Standard plan to the pricing section.
- 2026-09-20 - Added the Price history section tracking price changes in a table, per the new owner rule.
- 2026-09-20 - Extended the blog-cadence claim to September 11, 2026 (the Software Factory buildout post) and re-dated the no-free-tier claim.
- 2026-10-06 - Named the Intent product in What it is (coordinated agents, isolated workspaces, living specs).
- 2026-10-07 - Recorded the blog going quiet (no new posts between September 11 and October 7, 2026) and re-verified the plan structure and the no-free-tier claim against the live pricing page.
- 2026-10-09 - Recorded the October 8, 2026 sale of Cosmos, Auggie CLI, and the Context Engine to Harness (the “Augment Code’s next chapter” announcement), replacing the blog-quiet status framing; the pricing page re-verified unchanged with no free tier.
- 2026-10-17 - Full rotation re-verification: every cited URL re-fetched; the plan structure, no-free-tier claim, 40 percent service fee, and both benchmark write-ups re-verified unchanged, the blog still ending at the October 8 announcement; recorded Intent’s move to open source under its own intent-hq organization (Apache-2.0 monorepo, stable release channel, mobile app).
- 2026-10-24 - Rotation re-verification: every cited URL re-fetched; the plan structure, no-free-tier claim, and 40 percent service fee unchanged, the blog still ending at the October 8 announcement (newest-post claim confirmed through the sitemap), and the intent-hq repository still active.
See also #
- Sourcegraph code context platform - the infrastructure-only version of the same retrieval bet
- Greptile - the validation-layer counterpart with the inverse business model
- Claude Code - the baseline every context-engine benchmark measures against
- Agentic Coding Tools Landscape - where context engines sit in the four-layer map
References #
https://www.augmentcode.com/context-engine - Context Engine mechanics and headline efficiency claims
https://docs.augmentcode.com/introduction - current product surfaces (Cosmos, Auggie CLI, IDE extensions)
https://api.github.com/repos/intent-hq/intent - the Intent monorepo: Apache-2.0, daemon plus front end plus iOS submodules, stable release channel (fetched 2026-10-17)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45586110 - October 2025 pricing backlash thread with the 22.5%/20x admission