A former Google engineer has sparked widespread discussion online after claiming he was fired just days after releasing an AI-powered command-line tool for Google Workspace that quickly gained popularity among developers.
Justin Poehnelt, who worked at Google for nearly seven years, shared his experience in a viral post on X, saying his open-source project, gws, became the top-ranked post on Hacker News, attracted thousands of GitHub stars and gained thousands of users within days.
According to Poehnelt, Google announced plans for its own official Google Workspace command-line interface (CLI) just two days before his employment ended.
Engineer questions reason behind dismissal
Poehnelt said he does not believe the tool itself led to his dismissal. Instead, he claimed some leaders within the company were concerned about the growing role of AI agents and the potential disruption they could bring to Google Workspace.
He acknowledged that questions were raised internally about his use of Google’s branding and logo on the project’s GitHub repository. While admitting that formal brand approval had not been obtained, he maintained that branding issues were not the primary reason for his departure.
The former engineer also clarified that the project was not a personal hobby but part of his responsibilities within the Google Workspace Developer Relations team, which develops open-source tools for Workspace APIs.
AI tools reshape software development
The incident has fuelled debate within the technology community about the growing importance of AI-powered developer tools and the evolving relationship between innovation and corporate policies.
Despite the controversy, Poehnelt expressed gratitude for his years at Google, crediting his colleagues and manager for their support. His story has since attracted millions of views online, with many developers discussing the future of AI agents and open-source software development.