OpenAI updates Codex
The company released GPT-5-Codex, a variant of GPT-5 that is optimized for Codex, OpenAI’s AI coding agent. It was trained on real-world engineering tasks like building projects from scratch, adding features and tests, debugging, large-scale refactoring, and code reviews.
“With these updates, Codex moves closer to what we’ve been building toward all along—a teammate that understands your context, works alongside you, and reliably takes on work for your team,” OpenAI wrote in a post.
Other recent updates to Codex have included the Codex CLI; the Codex IDE extension in VS Code, Cursor, and other VS Code forks; and more advanced code review capabilities.
Xcode 26 gets Claude integration
Xcode is Apple’s IDE for building apps across Apple platforms, and Claude users will now be able to connect up their Anthropic account to their Xcode environment to get access to Claude Sonnet 4 capabilities.
In Xcode, Claude can help generate documentation, provide explanations of specific sections of code, create SwiftUI previews and playgrounds, and make inline code changes in the editor.
According to Anthropic, Claude subscription usages are shared across platforms, and this integration is available for any Claude subscription that includes access to Claude Code.
GitHub launches MCP Registry to provide central location for trusted servers
GitHub has launched an MCP Registry to provide developers with a curated directory of MCP servers.
“If you’ve tried connecting AI agents to your development tools, you know the pain: MCP servers scattered across numerous registries, random repos, buried in community threads — making discovery slow and full of friction without a central place to go. Meanwhile, MCP server creators are worn out from publishing to multiple places and answering the same setup questions again and again,” GitHub wrote in a blog post.
Each server in the Registry is connected to its own GitHub repository, and they can be sorted by GitHub stars and community activity.
According to GitHub, this backing builds trust in specific MCP servers, leading to a healthier overall AI ecosystem.
Google further integrates AI into Chrome
Chrome is getting a new AI browsing assistant called Gemini in Chrome that can do things like answer questions about an article or find references in a YouTube video. It is now rolling out to U.S. Mac and Windows users who have their default language set to English, and will expand to Android and iOS in the future.
Google Search’s AI Mode will also be integrated into the Chrome address bar. For example, when a user is shopping for a mattress, it might suggest follow-up searches, such as “what’s the warranty policy?”
Finally, Google will continue using AI to keep users safe, such as filling in login credentials using Chrome’s autofill, blocking new types of scams, and helping users fix security issues like compromised passwords and spam notifications. Google says that its initial use of AI-powered warnings for Android Chrome users has resulted in 3 billion fewer scam and spam website notifications per day.
Microsoft shares Insiders preview of Visual Studio 2026
Microsoft has launched its Insiders preview program for Visual Studio 2026, providing insights into what developers can expect from the upcoming release.
One of the main highlights is that the company plans to integrate AI even further into the IDE, describing it as being “woven into the daily rhythms of coding” as opposed to being “bolted on.”
For example, when opening a new codebase, the IDE will suggest the kind of tests that are typically written in the repo and keep docs and comments consistent with the code.
“Code reviews start with clear, actionable insights about correctness, performance, and security – on your machine, before you ever open a pull request. Through it all, you stay in control. The IDE takes the busy-work; you keep the judgment. The result is simple: you move faster, and your code gets better,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post.
Zencoder users can now bring their AI coding tool subscriptions into platform
Zencoder announced an expansion to its platform that lets customers bring popular AI coding tools into Zencoder. New VS Code and JetBrains extensions will allow users to bring their existing ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini subscription into Zencoder, combining daily limits and enable users to easily switch between models.
“For the first time, developers don’t need to choose between powerful CLIs, IDE integration, or enterprise capabilities,” said Andrew Filev, CEO and Founder of Zencoder. “We’re eliminating tool silos and making AI-assisted development accessible to everyone, from start-ups to enterprise teams alike.”
Microsoft Fabric’s latest update lays foundation for AI
Microsoft announced the latest innovations to Microsoft Fabric at a user conference for the platform, FabCon. Microsoft Fabric is a platform that brings data from multiple sources into one place.
New capabilities were added to OneLake, the unified data lake underlying Fabric, including mirroring capabilities for Oracle and GoogleBig Query, extended support for data agents, and OneLake shortcuts for Azure Blob Storage. Additionally, OneLake now has an integration with Azure AI Search, which will allow users to build more context-aware agents.
And finally, Fabric and Azure AI Foundry are becoming more closely integrated. Fabric provides a way to connect up data and then Azure AI Foundry allows developers to use familiar tools for building and scaling AI applications and agents.
MongoDB MCP Server is now generally available
After a successful public preview, MongoDB announced that its MCP Server is now generally available.
As part of this week’s release, enterprise-grade authentication with OIDC, LDAP, and Kerberos has been added, along with proxy connectivity. There is also now self-hosted remote deployment support so that teams can share deployments and have a centralized configuration.
The MongoDB Server can be downloaded directly or obtained in a bundle with the MongoDB for VS Code extension.
Progress adds AI coding assistance to Telerik and Kendo UI libraries
Progress has announced that it is bringing its AI coding assistants to the Telerik and Kendo UI libraries.
Previously, the company had added AI assistants to Progress Telerik UI for Blazor and Progress KendoReact. According to the company, with today’s release, it now offers AI coding assistance across all major UI component libraries, including ASP.NET Core, WPF, WinForms, .NET MAUI, and Angular.
Progress’ AI coding assistants integrate within developers’ existing IDE workflows and work in AI coding solutions like GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, and Cursor.
They can complete tasks such as generating and configuring components, surfacing relevant API documentation, and resolving component-specific issues, Progress explained.
Redgate’s SQL Prompt updated with new AI features
New features include the ability to use conversational prompts to write SQL code, get explanations of SQL code, get index recommendations to improve performance, and get context-aware instructions for faster query writing in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
These latest features are available to all SQL Prompt or SQL Toolbelt Essentials users, and are opt-in only to give users more control over their use of AI.
“Our priority is giving database professionals the confidence to do their best work,” said Kellyn Gorman, AI Advocate at Redgate. “SQL Prompt has always been trusted because it makes everyday tasks easier, and now we’re extending that with AI in a way that feels supportive rather than disruptive. The new features are designed to work with you: helping to clarify complex queries, improve code quality, and highlight performance opportunities, while keeping you in control of when and how AI is used.”
The post This week in AI updates: OpenAI Codex updates, Claude integration in Xcode 26, and more (September 19, 2025) appeared first on SD Times.
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