arxivcs.SEcs.AI2026-07-02
Decoupling Code Complexity from Newcomer Participation: A Causal Study of AI Coding Agent Adoption in OSS
Weiwei Xu, Xuanning Cui, Hengzhi Ye, Minghui Zhou
Open-source projects depend on a steady inflow of newcomers. A growing concern is that AI coding agents (tools such as Cursor and Claude Code that write code from natural-language instructions) will crowd them out, by absorbing the simple tasks that beginners start with and by ma…