The developer tool stack looked roughly the same from 2015 to 2023. IDE, Git, CI/CD, monitoring, and maybe a code review tool. Then AI hit, and everything shifted.
The 2026 Stack
Code Intelligence (NEW)
What changed: This category didn't exist 2 years ago. Now it's the layer that makes everything else smarter. Tools: Glue (pre-code intelligence), Sourcegraph Cody (code search + AI) What it does: Maps codebases into knowledge graphs. Surfaces context, dependencies, tribal knowledge, and feature boundaries.
AI Code Generation
Went from novelty to default. 87% of developers use at least one AI coding tool. GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf Autocomplete, chat-based code generation, multi-file editing