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CognitionAI Coding Agent

Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)

Desktop code editor from Cognition, formerly Windsurf, that runs local coding agents and delegates work to Devin cloud agents from one Agent Command Center.

The 30-Second Take

Pick Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) if engineers will run several coding agents from one editor under admin rules.

Cognition renamed Windsurf in June 2026 and replaced the Cascade agent with Devin Local. ServiceNow moved about 7,000 engineers to it from GitHub Copilot.

Best fit
Teams that want to run several coding agents, third-party ones included, from one editor with admin-enforced permissions.
Main constraint
SSO and role-based access require Enterprise, and Teams seats do not include them.
First move
Pilot Devin Local on Teams full seats with team permission rules and spending limits set.

Why

Watch the public mood: most accounts that compare editors prefer another tool. SSO and role-based access come only with Enterprise, and Teams seats do not include them.

Practitioner sentiment, all practitioners+17 Mixed

63 practitioners, 106 sources reviewed, Updated Nov 1, 2026How this is measured

Read the GILD Review
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Operating stack
Agentic Software Development

Comparisons

How does Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) compare with the alternatives?

See all 5 comparisons

  1. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) vs Cursor

    • AI Coding Agents

    Cursor runs its own agent and includes SSO on Teams, while Devin Desktop runs Cognition's agents next to third-party ones and keeps SSO for Enterprise. Each is a desktop editor forked from VS Code with agents built in. Agent strategy and the identity controls your plan needs decide it.

  2. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) vs GitHub Copilot

    • AI Coding Agents

    Copilot adds agents to the editors and GitHub workflow a team already has, and its cloud agent works from issues and pull requests on GitHub.com. Devin Desktop asks engineers to switch to its editor and manages local and cloud agents from there. Choose Copilot to keep current editors, and Devin Desktop for one editor that runs several agents.

  3. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) vs Codex

    • AI Coding Agents

    Choose Codex if engineers keep their editors: it comes with ChatGPT plans and runs in ChatGPT's apps, a CLI, an IDE extension, and Codex Cloud. Choose Devin Desktop for a dedicated editor that runs Codex CLI as one of several agents.

Operator Insights

What are engineering leaders learning from deploying Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)?

See all 10 operator accounts

Buying and deployment

What engineering leaders should verify before a broader rollout.

Sourced from Cognition's Devin Desktop documentation

How you buy it

US$40

Per full seat per month on Teams, with a US$80 minimum. Pro is US$20.

Source 1, Cognition, Devin docs: Self-serve plans: Devin docs: Self-serve plansSource 2, Cognition, Quota-based usage: Quota-based usage

Details

Pro US$20 or Max US$200 per month; Teams US$40 per full seat per month with a US$80 monthly minimum, up to 200 users; Enterprise is custom, billed in ACUs on Devin Enterprise contracts, and existing Enterprise customers keep their billing agreements.

Cost drivers

Daily and weekly quotas

Drawn down per token at the model's rate. Extra usage bills at API list prices.

Source 1, Cognition, Devin docs: Self-serve plans: Devin docs: Self-serve plansSource 2, Cognition, Quota-based usage: Quota-based usageSource 5, docs.devin.ai, Devin Desktop models: Devin Desktop models

Details

Pro and Teams full seats include a daily and a weekly quota, and Max a larger weekly quota with no daily cap. Each is drawn down per token at the selected model's rate, and extra usage is billed at API list prices. Teams flex seats are free but exclude Devin Desktop. Cognition's SWE-2 model is free on self-serve plans in Devin Desktop and Devin CLI through Nov 30, 2026, outside Devin cloud sessions. After that it draws quota at US$3 per million input tokens and US$15 per million output tokens.

Where it runs

Desktop editor

On macOS, Windows, and Linux, running Devin Local or other ACP agents.

Source 8, docs.devin.ai, Install Devin Desktop: Install Devin DesktopSource 3, Cognition, Devin Local agent: Devin Local agentSource 6, Cognition, Devin Desktop ACP agents: Devin Desktop ACP agentsSource 7, docs.devin.ai, Devin Desktop changelog: Devin Desktop changelog

Details

Desktop editor for macOS, Windows, and Linux, running Devin Local or third-party ACP agents, with Devin cloud sessions started from the editor. ACP agents are self-serve on Free, Pro, Max, and Teams; Enterprise enables them through its account team. Cascade was removed in version 3.9.19 on Sep 8, 2026, and Devin Local is the only built-in agent.

What to verify

Devin Local off

On Enterprise until an admin enables it. SSO and RBAC are Enterprise only.

Source 2, Cognition, Quota-based usage: Quota-based usageSource 3, Cognition, Devin Local agent: Devin Local agentSource 4, Cognition, Admin controls reference: Admin controls reference

Details

SSO is Enterprise only for new plans, and RBAC roles decide who can change Devin Desktop settings; on Enterprise, Devin Local is off until an admin enables it; device-management (MDM) policies must cover Devin Desktop, the renamed Windsurf.

Signals

What is the current evidence saying about Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)?

A source-linked read of what teams and builders report about Devin Desktop and Windsurf before the rename.

Whose sources count

Practitioner sentiment, all practitioners

+17 Mixed net

of 67 sources that take a side, each author counted once.

How this figure is made

11 more state no overall view and cast no vote.

Leaders and teams have 14 accounts; GILD prints their sentiment from 20.

Current sentiment

Positive, mixed and negative sources

The score counts them as 26 positive, 22 mixed and 15 negative votes, one per author.

The read is positive. Codebase context draws the most praise. Review burden draws the most concern, followed by agent reliability and usage limits after pricing changes. Of 30 sources comparing editors, 22 prefer another tool.

Use a task pilot to measure accepted work and review time.

Evidence field. All 106 sources, one mark each.

Arrange by

Each mark is one source: positive, mixed, negative, no opinion stated, or documentation (not counted).

By sentiment, All practitioners. Every source GILD read, grouped as the field draws it.
GroupSourcesPositiveMixedNegativeNo opinion stated and not counted in the scoreDocumentation, checked and not counted
Positive28280000
Mixed24024000
Negative15001500
Not counted19000190
Documentation20000020
Every source GILD read, by the quarter it was published, as the field's time axis counts it. Documentation is dated by the day it was checked.
QuarterSources
Q1 202510
Q2 202527
Q3 202513
Q4 202510
Q1 20267
Q2 20268
Q3 202611
Documentation, checked20

By sentiment

20 documentation pages check facts and are not counted.

Hover a mark for a quick look, click it or press Enter to open its source.Tap a mark to open its source, then step to its neighbors with Previous and Next.

What practitioners praise

Top praise of 5. Each mark is a source on it; filled marks praise it.

  1. Codebase Context15 of 17 sources on it praise it

Most common concerns

Top concern of 6. Each mark is a source on it; filled marks raise it.

  1. Requires Strong Review18 of 19 sources on it raise it as a concern
All 106 sources behind these findings
  1. Devin Desktop FAQCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  2. Devin Local agentCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  3. Cascade overviewCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  4. Quota-based usageCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  5. Self-serve plansCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  6. Plans and usageCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  7. Admin controls referenceCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  8. TerminalCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  9. Memories and rulesCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  10. AGENTS.mdCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  11. Context awarenessCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  12. .devinignoreCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  13. Agent Command CenterCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  14. Devin in Devin DesktopCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  15. Agent Client ProtocolCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  16. Quick ReviewCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  17. Role-based accessCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  18. SSO and SCIMCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  19. Guide for adminsCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  20. Get agent outputCognition (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 12, 2026
  21. Comment on: Cognition launches new SWE-2 model, Rivaling Fable 5.1 and GPT-Astraprincevegeta89, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Long-time Windsurf user), Hacker News comment, published Sep 11, 2026
  22. Comment on: Cognition launches new SWE-2 model, Rivaling Fable 5.1 and GPT-Astrafishtoaster, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; evaluated cloud agents after leaving Cursor), Hacker News comment, published Sep 11, 2026
  23. Comment on: Cognition launches new SWE-2 model, Rivaling Fable 5.1 and GPT-Astrabluelightning2k, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Uses Devin Desktop as their editor), Hacker News comment, published Sep 10, 2026
  24. Comment on: Cognition launches new SWE-2 model, Rivaling Fable 5.1 and GPT-AstraPolCPP, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Grandfathered individual subscriber), Hacker News comment, published Sep 10, 2026
  25. Comment on: Cognition launches new SWE-2 model, Rivaling Fable 5.1 and GPT-Astrahightrix, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Their company, on an enterprise plan for about nine months), Hacker News comment, published Sep 10, 2026
  26. Comment on: Cognition launches new SWE-2 model, Rivaling Fable 5.1 and GPT-Astrapaimapi, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Former Windsurf user), Hacker News comment, published Sep 10, 2026
  27. Comment on: SWE-1.7 Reach Near GPT 5.5 and Opus IntelligenceRussianCow, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, under a month on Devin), Hacker News comment, published Jul 9, 2026
  28. Comment on: SWE-1.7 Reach Near GPT 5.5 and Opus Intelligencefallinditch, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Former Windsurf user, now on Devin Desktop), Hacker News comment, published Jul 8, 2026
  29. Comment on: SWE-1.7 Reach Near GPT 5.5 and Opus Intelligencegodzillabrennus, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Their organization, a former Windsurf customer), Hacker News comment, published Jul 8, 2026
  30. Comment on: SWE-1.7 Reach Near GPT 5.5 and Opus IntelligenceRussianCow, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, spec-driven workflow), Hacker News comment, published Jul 8, 2026
  31. Comment on: SWE-1.7 Reach Near GPT 5.5 and Opus Intelligencesettled, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; used Windsurf before the rename), Hacker News comment, published Jul 8, 2026
  32. 2x the power users: How structured AI training scaled developer productivityJeff Davis, VP of Core Infrastructure at Indeed (Job site with more than 2,000 engineers; talk given with product manager Michael Redding), Conference session page with transcript, DX Annual via Engineering Enablement by DX, published Jun 29, 2026
  33. Mapping the new SDLC at BNY: Codifying AI into every step of the delivery lifecycleJason Valentino, Head of Software Engineering Strategy at BNY (Bank with more than 8,000 engineers; owns developer tooling and DevEx), Conference session page with transcript, DX Annual via Engineering Enablement by DX, published Jun 8, 2026
  34. Devin Desktop (ex-Windsurf): Features, Pricing, What ChangedMaksim Danilchenko, Engineering Lead at inDrive (self-described: Hands-on review after the rename; personal blog), Personal blog post, danilchenko.dev, published Jun 6, 2026
  35. From Windsurf to Devin Desktop: my first impressions after migratingEdwar Diaz, developer (self-described: Solo; more than a year on Windsurf), Personal blog post, DEV Community, published Jun 4, 2026
  36. Windsurf Review 2026: Not For Solo Founders, Great For Small TeamsRavi Patel, solo founder (self-described: Solo founder; one-week trial on the free tier), Personal blog post, DEV Community (from rikuq.com), published May 25, 2026
  37. Comment on: Changes to GitHub Copilot individual plansisqueiros, Hacker News commenter at a company with company-wide Windsurf accounts (self-described: Company with company-wide Windsurf, Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise accounts), Hacker News comment, published Apr 22, 2026
  38. Comment on: Anthropic downgraded cache TTL on March 6thzazibar, Hacker News commenter at a company with over 400 engineers (self-described: Company of over 400 engineers that canceled its Windsurf subscriptions), Hacker News comment, published Apr 12, 2026
  39. Comment on: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClawvisarga, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Former Windsurf subscriber), Hacker News comment, published Apr 4, 2026
  40. Comment on: Ask HN: US$50 monthly budget, which coding models would you recommend now?Patt_, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo on a US$50 monthly tooling budget), Hacker News comment, published Mar 24, 2026
  41. Comment on: Ask HN: Who is still using Windsurf and why?dennisjoseph, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; Windsurf is their primary IDE), Hacker News comment, published Mar 20, 2026
  42. Windsurf Bug Report - Memory Leak Consuming All RAM on Linuxoib, Windsurf user filing a bug report (self-described: Solo, Debian 13 with GNOME), GitHub issue, published Mar 10, 2026
  43. Comment on: Labor market impacts of AI: A new measure and early evidencesensanaty, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Engineer at a company with AGENTS.md and rules files in place), Hacker News comment, published Mar 6, 2026
  44. I Tried Windsurf: An AI Native Coding EnvironmentSaloni Agrawal, React and React Native developer (self-described: Solo; VS Code user trying Windsurf), Personal blog post, DEV Community, published Mar 4, 2026
  45. # Windsurf IDE Freeze Bug Reportaeongeon, Windsurf user filing a bug report (self-described: Solo, Linux (Pop!_OS)), GitHub issue, published Feb 10, 2026
  46. Latent Space: Brex's AI Hail Mary, with James ReggioJames Reggio, chief technology officer, Brex (self-described: Brex, a few seats of several tools chosen by employees), Podcast episode with publisher transcript, published Jan 17, 2026
  47. C3 AI: Autonomous coding agents beyond developer productivitySina Pakazad, Vice President, Data Science, C3 AI (self-described: C3 AI, coding agents inside its platform), Organization write-up, published Dec 24, 2025
  48. How AI-Enabled Tooling Boosted Code Output 30% While Keeping Quality and Deployment Safety IntactDarryn Dieken, Chief Availability Officer at Salesforce (Engineering productivity and reliability for thousands of Salesforce engineers across 25 Hyperforce regions), Company engineering blog post, Salesforce Engineering, published Dec 16, 2025
  49. Comment on: Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?gcbirzan, Hacker News commenter whose team moved from Copilot to Windsurf (self-described: Team working in a monorepo of over 1M lines of code, moved from Copilot to Windsurf), Hacker News comment, published Dec 14, 2025
  50. Building AI-Powered Migration Tools: Compressing 4 Sprints Into 3 Days with Cursor, Windsurf, and ClaudeTripti Sheth, Senior Director of Software Engineering at Salesforce (Monitoring Cloud Notification Management team; backend engineers building a migration tracking tool), Company engineering blog post, Salesforce Engineering, published Nov 17, 2025
  51. Comment on: Codemaps: Understand Code, Before You Vibe ItCSMastermind, Hacker News commenter who evaluates dev tooling for their company (self-described: Decides tooling across their company), Hacker News comment, published Nov 5, 2025
  52. Comment on: Codemaps: Understand Code, Before You Vibe Itbluelightning2k, Hacker News commenter, senior engineer (self-described: Senior engineer mixing agentic and regular coding), Hacker News comment, published Nov 4, 2025
  53. Comment on: Codemaps: Understand Code, Before You Vibe Itmpalmer, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Uses Windsurf at work alongside Claude Code), Hacker News comment, published Nov 4, 2025
  54. ServiceNow Says Windsurf Gave Its Engineers a 10% Productivity BoostPat Casey, CTO and co-founder of ServiceNow (Enterprise software company; about 7,000 engineers moved from GitHub Copilot), Podcast episode page, The New Stack Agents, published Oct 17, 2025
  55. [Windsurf Bug] AI keeps getting stuck executing terminal commandsjoyboy123456, Windsurf user filing a bug report (self-described: Solo, Windows with PowerShell), GitHub issue, published Oct 10, 2025
  56. Comment on: Vibe engineeringtartieret, Hacker News commenter, CTO (self-described: Their engineering team, with senior and junior developers), Hacker News comment, published Oct 9, 2025
  57. How AI Tools Cut Customer Escalation Time: From Days of Manual Work to MinutesKristin Foss, VP of Software Engineering for Customer Centric Engineering at Salesforce (180-person engineering team resolving customer escalations across Salesforce products), Company engineering blog post, Salesforce Engineering, published Sep 29, 2025
  58. IDE Comparison with Cursor, Windsurf & Copilot on GPT-5Bap (fernandezbaptiste), developer (self-described: Solo weekend test on greenfield and brownfield projects), Personal blog post, DEV Community, published Sep 3, 2025
  59. Comment on: Why does AI feel so different?scotty79, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, a game project), Hacker News comment, published Aug 13, 2025
  60. Comment on Hacker News: cancelled Windsurf after the acquisitioncactca, Hacker News commenter and self-described Windsurf subscriber (self-described: Solo developer), Hacker News comment, published Aug 5, 2025
  61. Windsurf vs. Cursor: When to choose the challengerChizaram Ken, frontend developer writing for LogRocket (self-described: Solo, a Next.js to-do app built with Cascade), Independent review, LogRocket Blog, published Jul 31, 2025
  62. Comment on: Vibe coding service Replit deleted production database, faked data, told fibsbadaigent, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, a Next.js app), Hacker News comment, published Jul 27, 2025
  63. Windsurf In Action: Building AWS InfrastructureSteve Lewis, Lead Software Engineer at World Wide Technology (Team building a mobile app backend on AWS with Terraform; WWT also sells Windsurf adoption services), Company blog post, WWT, published Jul 23, 2025
  64. Comment on: Cognition (Devin AI) to Acquire Windsurfjustinclift, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Their workplace uses Windsurf; the commenter canceled a personal plan), Hacker News comment, published Jul 16, 2025
  65. How Windsurf Has Revolutionized My Development WorkflowDavid Roff, Software Engineer at World Wide Technology (Full stack platform team: web, React Native mobile, APIs and databases; WWT also sells Windsurf adoption services), Company blog post, WWT, published Jul 14, 2025
  66. Comment on: OpenAI's Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf's CEO is going to GoogleRestlessAPI, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; completion-first use), Hacker News comment, published Jul 12, 2025
  67. Comment on: OpenAI's Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf's CEO is going to Googlechris_engel, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; tried agent workflows in Copilot and Windsurf), Hacker News comment, published Jul 12, 2025
  68. Comment on: OpenAI's Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf's CEO is going to Googlesunaookami, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Former Windsurf user), Hacker News comment, published Jul 11, 2025
  69. Comment on: OpenAI's Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf's CEO is going to Googlediegof79, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; adopted Windsurf at launch), Hacker News comment, published Jul 11, 2025
  70. Transcript: 'How Two Engineers Ship Like a Team of 15 With AI Agents'Kieran Klaassen, general manager of Cora at Every (Two-engineer team building Cora, an AI email product at Every), Podcast episode transcript, AI & I (Every), published Jun 11, 2025
  71. Lessons in quality engineering from working with Cursor and WindsurfMark Winteringham, tester, toolsmith, author and instructor (self-described: Solo; migrating his public restful-booker-platform front end to Next.js), Article, Ministry of Testing, published Jun 10, 2025
  72. Comment on: My AI skeptic friends are all nutsosigurdson, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, a few months of use), Hacker News comment, published Jun 3, 2025
  73. TechCrunch: Windsurf says Anthropic is limiting its direct access to Claude AI modelsMaxwell Zeff, senior reporter, TechCrunch (self-described: Windsurf subscribers using Claude models), News report, published Jun 3, 2025
  74. Comment on: Windsurf SWE-1: Our First Frontier Modelstianshuo, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Paid individual user), Hacker News comment, published May 19, 2025
  75. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?robch, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Staff-level Android tooling work on a company license), Hacker News comment, published May 18, 2025
  76. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?eisfresser, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, parallel Cascade sessions), Hacker News comment, published May 12, 2025
  77. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?pbowyer, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Trialled Cursor and Windsurf on the same PHP codebases), Hacker News comment, published May 12, 2025
  78. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?pembrook, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, agentic coding), Hacker News comment, published May 12, 2025
  79. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?powerapple, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, a Python project), Hacker News comment, published May 12, 2025
  80. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?whywhywhywhy, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; uses Cursor and Windsurf), Hacker News comment, published May 12, 2025
  81. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?artdigital, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; former subscriber), Hacker News comment, published May 12, 2025
  82. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?thesurlydev, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Uses the Windsurf plugin inside JetBrains IDEs), Hacker News comment, published May 12, 2025
  83. Comment on: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?ksymph, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; switches between Cursor and Windsurf), Hacker News comment, published May 12, 2025
  84. Comment on: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?raymondgh, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo, a web app built with Windsurf), Hacker News comment, published May 8, 2025
  85. Comment on: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for US$3Bsagarpatil, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; Windsurf customer since launch), Hacker News comment, published May 7, 2025
  86. Comment on: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for US$3Bjohntarter, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Evaluating Windsurf against GitHub Copilot), Hacker News comment, published May 7, 2025
  87. Comment on: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for US$3Bzero-g, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Tried the editor and the Vim and IntelliJ plugins), Hacker News comment, published May 6, 2025
  88. Comment on: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for US$3B__jl__, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Uses Cursor and Windsurf), Hacker News comment, published May 6, 2025
  89. Comment on: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for US$3Bosigurdson, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Solo; writes code the commenter keeps by hand in Vim), Hacker News comment, published May 6, 2025
  90. Comment on: An update to our pricingtartieret, Hacker News commenter (a CTO, by their own account elsewhere) (self-described: Their company, whose developers mostly work in dev containers and WSL), Hacker News comment, published Apr 22, 2025
  91. Comment on: An update to our pricingCSMastermind, Hacker News commenter who evaluates dev tooling for their teams (self-described: Evaluates tools for their engineering teams), Hacker News comment, published Apr 22, 2025
  92. Comment on: An update to our pricingjawns, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Individual Windsurf subscriber), Hacker News comment, published Apr 21, 2025
  93. Comment on: An update to our pricingSquareWheel, Hacker News commenter (self-described: First week of individual use), Hacker News comment, published Apr 21, 2025
  94. Comment on: An update to our pricingramesh31, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Daily full-time use), Hacker News comment, published Apr 21, 2025
  95. Comment on: An update to our pricingadamgordonbell, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Individual, professional work), Hacker News comment, published Apr 21, 2025
  96. Comment on: The Bitter PredictionAndrewKemendo, Hacker News commenter writing as a tech founder planning team size (self-described: Tech founder sizing engineering teams for future projects), Hacker News comment, published Apr 13, 2025
  97. Matt Wolfe on X: tips after 100+ hours of vibe codingMatt Wolfe, founder of FutureTools and technology video creator (self-described: Solo; more than 100 hours of vibe coding in Cursor and Windsurf), X post, published Mar 25, 2025
  98. Windsurf’s Game-Changing IDE Experience, Part 2, Coding ExamplesJohn Hoestje, Software Architect and Developer at Keyhole Software (Software consultancy; solo experiments building a React site and a Flutter Sudoku game), Company blog post, Keyhole Software Dev Blog, published Mar 20, 2025
  99. Cascade stuck in a command execution loop because it cannot execute commandsAldrinSalazar, Windsurf user filing a bug report (self-described: Solo, Windows 11), GitHub issue, published Mar 16, 2025
  100. Vibe coding a nifty Umbraco toolSøren Kottal, Umbraco developer (self-described: Solo, a small web tool built in an afternoon), Personal blog post, DEV Community, published Mar 16, 2025
  101. Comment on: I use Cursor daily - here's how I avoid the garbage partsdivan, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Daily individual use), Hacker News comment, published Mar 12, 2025
  102. My AI-Powered Workflow for Writing Elixir and Phoenix with WindsurfDaniel Bergholz, developer (self-described: Solo side projects in Elixir, Phoenix, React and Inertia), Personal blog post, DEV Community, published Mar 10, 2025
  103. Comment on: Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Codebicx, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Individual use on new codebases), Hacker News comment, published Feb 24, 2025
  104. Remove or increase limit of past conversations in Cascade (Windsurf)nadavoid, Windsurf user filing a feature request (self-described: Solo, Cascade conversations), GitHub issue, published Feb 18, 2025
  105. Comment on: JetBrains Fleet drops support for Kotlin Multiplatformthesurlydev, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Uses JetBrains IDEs with Windsurf alongside), Hacker News comment, published Feb 12, 2025
  106. The model produced an invalid tool call, trying again.Bwogi, Windsurf subscriber filing a bug report (self-described: Solo; Next.js, TypeScript and Tailwind on macOS), GitHub issue on Exafunction/codeium, published Jan 30, 2025

Jan 2025 to Sep 2026.

86 sources from practitioners, by month and sentiment.

The full readExplore all Devin Desktop Signals5 praise themes, 6 concerns, 3 points of agreement and 3 disagreements across all three groups, with all 106 sources open to inspect.

Where It Fits

Where does Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) belong in the stack?

Open Where It Fits: the Stack Field and the full map

Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) is Core across Build, supports Plan and Validate, and touches Ship and Operate.

Business area
Product & Engineering
Function
Software Development
Operating stack
Agentic Software Development
Primary role
Agent Editor & Agent Command Center
Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) beside the rest of its stackThe Stack Field, every product on every layer
FootprintDevin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) across the Agentic Software Development stack. Bar height is its role on each layer.

  1. Plan

    1. Work planning: Supports

      Work planning, supports. Devin Local's Plan mode researches the codebase and writes an editable plan before implementing, and Spaces group sessions by task; planning stays in the team's tracker.

  2. Build

    1. Codebase context: Core

      Codebase context, core. Devin Desktop indexes the entire local codebase for retrieval, adds a Fast Context subagent for code search, and on Enterprise plans its plugins can index remote repositories.

    2. Coding: Core

      Coding, core. Devin Desktop's primary role is coding implementation: changing repository code with Devin Local or an ACP agent inside the editor.

    3. Agent runtime: Core

      Agent runtime, core. The editor and its Agent Command Center are where developers start, track, and review local agents, third-party ACP agents, and Devin cloud sessions.

    4. Tool execution: Supports

      Tool execution, supports. Agents run terminal commands and call MCP tools under allow, ask, and deny rules that admins can enforce; tool orchestration serves the coding work.

  3. Validate

    1. Debugging: Supports

      Debugging, supports. Developers can send Problems panel errors and terminal output straight to the agent, which investigates them with repository context.

    2. Testing: Supports

      Testing, supports. Agents can write and run tests in the editor's terminal, but Devin Desktop does not replace dedicated testing infrastructure.

    3. Code review: Supports

      Code review, supports. Quick Review runs a second agent over local Devin Local changes before commit. Pull request review is a separate Cognition product, Devin Review.

    4. Application security: Touches

      Application security, touches. Enterprise admins can enforce an OS-level sandbox and domain rules for local agents, but Devin Desktop is not an application-security platform.

  4. Ship

    1. Source control: Touches

      Source control, touches. Agents work in git worktrees and the editor drafts commit messages; Git stays the system of record.

    2. CI/CD: Touches

      CI/CD, touches. Devin Desktop has no app deploy since Cascade was removed on Sep 8, 2026; delivery stays in the team's CI/CD.

  5. Operate

    1. Observability: Touches

      Observability, touches. Agents can help investigate production issues when given logs or traces, but Devin Desktop provides no observability itself.

Market mapThe layers Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) covers, and who else owns each one.

  1. Codebase context & intelligence

    CoreBuild

  2. Coding & implementation

    CoreBuild

  3. Agent interface & developer runtime

    CoreBuild

  4. Work planning & task decomposition

    SupportsPlan

  5. Tool execution & integrations

    SupportsBuild

7 more layers on the full map. Core, Supports and Touches describe coverage. They say nothing about quality.

More on Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)

  1. GILD ReviewGILD's evaluation, with the buying facts
  2. Research3 pieces
  3. Guides4 guides
  4. Operator Insights10 operator accounts
  5. Where It FitsOn the Agentic Software Development stack
  6. Related Products8 products