Coding CLIs in mid-2026: the engineer's map (and what changed in 30 days) (opens in new tab)

The May piece (Every AI Coding CLI in 2026: the complete map, 30 tools compared) sorted tools by pricing and openness. That is one axis. It is not the axis a reader actually cares about when they open a terminal and need to pick something. The axis that matters is surface affordance: what shape of work am I trying to do, and what shape of tool meets that shape? This follow-up reorganises around that question, narrows to engineers using terminals, and refreshes everything that changed in 30 da...