From the experiment

Do coding agents recommend MotherDuck?

MotherDuck was chosen in 2% of 445 judged databases sessions, ranking seventh. Measured with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Grok Build CLI and Muse Code.

Published September 23, 2026 Read as Markdown

MotherDuck was chosen in 2% of 445 judged databases sessions, ranking seventh. It was also raised as a candidate in 21 further sessions without being chosen.

This page reports what happened when Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Grok Build CLI and Muse Code had to solve a problem in databases inside a realistic codebase. Not what a chat assistant says about MotherDuck. What an agent actually installed.

One thing to read first: every one of those wins came from a single codebase. That is a result about one repository rather than about databases in general, and the splits below cannot separate the two. Treat them as a description of that repository.

The numbers

CategoryDatabases
Sessions in the category445
Sessions where MotherDuck was chosen10
Install share2%
Rank in category7 of 14
Codebases it won in1
Raised as a candidate, not chosen21
Chosen when considered32%
Sitemotherduck.com

By agent

With 10 wins spread across 5 agents, the rates below are small numbers and a difference between them is not yet a finding. They are here because the direction is worth knowing, not because the gap is established.

AgentSessionsChose MotherDuckShare
Claude Code14711%
Codex12100%
Cursor14286%
Grok Build CLI1816%
Muse Code1700%

By who was asking

MotherDuck performs similarly across the four kinds of buyer, from 0% to 4%. That is unusual: the category leader changed with the persona in 23 of the 29 categories we measured.

Who is askingSessionsChose MotherDuckShare
Vibe coder7400%
Junior developer13600%
Senior engineer235104%

What MotherDuck was up against

The full ranking in databases, from the same sessions:

#ProductRuns wonShare
1Neon28564%
2Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server409%
3Azure SQL Database389%
4Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL256%
5Supabase143%
6Scaleway Managed Database for PostgreSQL123%
7MotherDuck (this page)102%
8DigitalOcean Managed PostgreSQL61%

What this means

MotherDuck was raised in 21 sessions and chosen in 10. That ratio is balanced enough that the ceiling is presence rather than integration: the product converts reasonably when it is on the table, and it is not on the table often enough.

Where these numbers come from

The 445 sessions in databases are part of a published set of 11,878, run with real coding agents inside realistic codebases and judged blind. The full method is on one page: how we measured this.

Every databases run can be replayed on the board.

If you work on MotherDuck: the judge recorded a reason for every session where it was raised and passed over. Those reasons are in the transcripts.

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Common questions

Do coding agents recommend MotherDuck?

Yes. MotherDuck was chosen in 10 of the 445 judged sessions in databases, a 2% install share, ranking seventh in its category.

Does Claude Code recommend MotherDuck?

In 1 of the 147 sessions in databases run with Claude Code, which is 1%.

Do different coding agents treat MotherDuck differently?

Not much. Claude Code, Codex and Cursor chose it at similar rates, between 0% and 6% of their runs.

How was this measured?

Real coding agents at pinned versions were run in sandboxes inside 91 realistic codebases and asked to solve real tasks. A simulated project owner approved or questioned each recommendation before any code was written, and a judge from a model family that builds none of the agents read every session blind.

How often is MotherDuck considered but not chosen?

It was raised as a candidate in 21 sessions without being chosen, and chosen in 10. That is a 32% conversion from considered to chosen.

Where this comes from

Armature ran 11,878 judged sessions with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Grok Build CLI and Muse Code inside 91 realistic codebases, and published every run. The numbers on this page come from that work.

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