Astral, the company behind widely used Python development tools Ruff, uv, and ty, has agreed to join OpenAI as part of its Codex team, according to a March 19 announcement from Founder and CEO Charlie Marsh. Marsh said the company was created to improve the experience of writing software and has since grown from an early-stage startup into a major force in Python development, with its tools now generating hundreds of millions of downloads each month. He described the shift as a logical next step as AI becomes more central to software development, writing, “Today, AI is rapidly changing the way we build software.”
Marsh said Astral will continue supporting its open-source products after the deal closes, with OpenAI expected to maintain that commitment. He noted that Astral plans to keep developing its tools publicly while also exploring tighter integration with Codex and expanding its focus on the future of software development. “Our goal remains the same: to make programming more productive,” Marsh wrote. He also thanked Astral’s employees, investors, and user community for helping build what he described as some of the most admired software in the programming ecosystem. No financial terms of the agreement were disclosed.
