Devin Desktop

Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf: Cognition's AI code editor, with agents that run on your machine or in Cognition's cloud.

Beginner to intermediate · AI-first code editor

What makes Devin Desktop different

Devin Desktop is what Windsurf has been called since June 2, 2026, when Cognition renamed it. Cognition says it is the same IDE and the same editor, and windsurf.com now redirects to the new product page. It is a full standalone editor derived from VS Code, so it competes most directly with Cursor rather than with plugin-based tools. Its main agent is Devin Local, the successor to Cascade, which works on your machine with your local files and tools. The app also manages long-running Devin Cloud sessions, and through the Agent Client Protocol it can run other agents such as Codex, Claude Agent and OpenCode. Like Cursor it is a commercial product with hosted models, so the honest test is to run both on your own repository and see which agent behavior and editor feel you prefer. The differences show up on real multi-step tasks, not in feature lists.

Best for

Developers and teams comparing commercial AI coding environments before choosing a daily editor workflow.

Why use it

Devin Desktop is worth testing when you want a polished AI coding workflow and want to compare its agent behavior against Cursor and Cline on real repository tasks. If you already use Windsurf, Cognition says the editor and its features carry over, and it still reads .windsurfrules files.

Key features

Devin Local agent, working on your machine with your files, tools and environment
Devin Cloud sessions for long-running work on a separate machine
Tab completions and inline edits
MCP servers, set up through local config files
Other agents through the Agent Client Protocol

Tradeoffs

Do not plan on it for a local-model setup. Its documentation lists hosted models, and mentions local endpoints such as Ollama only in its guide to air-gapped enterprise deployments. Cline is the better fit if you want to run against Ollama or LM Studio. Some features send data to Cognition: remote indexing runs on its servers, and shared conversations are uploaded. Its security page says it may use your data for model training by default, with an opt-out on paid plans. The Windsurf JetBrains plugin is in maintenance mode. Plans are Free, Pro, Max, Teams and Enterprise, so review current pricing, data settings and team controls before standardizing on it.

How we checked this

We read Cognition’s own pages on November 5, 2026. We have not run Devin Desktop on our own machines, so nothing on this page is a test result.