Cursor and GitHub move coding agents into remote background work
Cursor began gradually previewing Background Agent on May 15 with parallel remote environments, status checks, follow-ups, and takeover. On May 19, GitHub put Copilot coding agent into public preview, letting users assign issues that produced tested draft pull requests in a GitHub Actions environment.
Why it matters: Coding assistance became asynchronous delegation: the unit of value shifted from an inline suggestion to a reviewable pull request created while the developer did other work.