Windsurf Became Devin Desktop: What Happened After Cognition AI Acquired the AI IDE

Something big just happened in the AI coding tools space: Cognition AI — the company behind Devin, the "first AI software engineer" — acquired Windsurf and rebranded it as Devin Desktop.

My first reaction was: why would a cloud agent company buy an IDE?

After using it for a few days, I think I get it. This article is about what Devin Desktop actually is, how it compares to Cursor, and whether you should switch.

What Happened

Windsurf was originally built by Codeium as an AI-powered IDE, competing head-to-head with Cursor. Both were VS Code forks with AI superpowers. Windsurf's main draw was Cascade (their AI assistant) and aggressive pricing — at one point $5 cheaper than Cursor.

Then Cognition AI swooped in and acquired Windsurf. Two things happened:

Windsurf got renamed to Devin Desktop
Devin's cloud agent capabilities got baked directly into the IDE

You can still download it from windsurf.com, but the branding is all Devin now. The docs have migrated to docs.windsurf.com (confusingly, the domain didn't change). If you're coming from VS Code or Cursor, you can import your config in one click.

The domain is still windsurf.com but the pages are covered in Devin logos. It's clearly a transition period — the brand isn't fully unified yet.

Cascade: The Core AI Assistant

Cascade is Devin Desktop's AI assistant, equivalent to Cursor's Composer. Open it with Cmd/Ctrl+L. Any selected code or terminal output gets pulled in automatically.

Cascade has two modes:

Code mode: lets the AI modify your code, create files, run commands
Chat mode: pure Q&A, no code changes. In Chat mode, Cascade may suggest code you can accept and insert.

This is different from Cursor's split between Chat and Composer as separate entry points. Cascade puts both in one place, and you switch modes. Feels more unified in practice.

What Makes Cascade Stand Out

Real-time awareness. Cascade sees what you're doing in the editor — selected code, terminal commands, everything. You don't need to manually copy-paste context. You can literally just say "Continue" and it knows what you mean. This is more convenient than Cursor's @ file selection approach.

Message queue. While Cascade is working on a task, you can type your next message and it'll queue up. Press Enter to add to the queue, press Enter again on an empty box to send immediately. Small detail, but it feels great in practice — no more waiting around.

Named checkpoints. Cascade creates checkpoints every time it modifies code. You can revert to any point by clicking the revert arrow in the conversation, or create named snapshots you can jump back to later. Cursor has this too, but Devin Desktop's implementation is more intuitive — it's right there in the conversation list.

Auto lint fixing. If Cascade's code changes introduce lint errors, it detects and fixes them automatically — and this doesn't consume extra quota. Pretty generous, considering Cursor counts each request.

Worktrees. Running multiple Cascade tasks on the same project? Use Git Worktrees to isolate them so they don't step on each other's files. Very useful for larger projects.

Voice input. Cascade supports voice input — just speech-to-text for now, but handy when your hands are busy.

Cascade's Planning System

Cascade has a built-in planning capability. For complex tasks, it creates a Todo list, breaks the big task into steps, and works through them incrementally. You can see progress and modify the plan anytime.

In practice: it's not needed for simple tasks, and for complex ones the plan is often not quite right. But it's better than nothing — at least you can see what the AI is thinking.

The Real Killer Feature: Agent Command Center

This is the biggest difference from Cursor, and probably the core reason Cognition AI acquired Windsurf.

The Agent Command Center is a Kanban board for managing every agent you have running — both local Cascade sessions and cloud Devin sessions. Columns are organized by status: in progress, blocked, review, done.

The Local + Cloud Hybrid Workflow

You can take a task that Cascade is working on locally and, with one click, send it to Devin in the cloud. Devin spins up its own VM with a desktop environment, browser, and terminal. It works independently — debugging, deploying, testing, whatever it takes. And it keeps running even after you close your laptop.

Picture this workflow:

Use Cascade locally to discuss and confirm the approach
One-click send to Devin for implementation
Devin runs in the cloud while you keep coding
When Devin finishes, you see its PR in the Agent Command Center
Review it, merge if it looks good

This adds a "delegate to cloud agent" layer that Cursor doesn't have. Cursor only has local agents. Devin Desktop has both.

Spaces: Organize Everything by Project

Spaces in the Agent Command Center group all related stuff by project or task: agent sessions, PRs, files, context.

For a feature you're building, a Space contains:

Local Cascade conversation history
Devin cloud execution logs
Related PRs and code changes
Project file snapshots

Everything in one place. No more jumping between GitHub, terminal, and IDE. Very useful for team collaboration.

Supported Models

Devin Desktop has a solid model lineup:

OpenAI: GPT-4o, o3, o4-mini
Anthropic: Claude 4 Sonnet, Claude 4 Opus
Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro
Their own: SWE 1.6 (free to use)
A bunch of open source models

Pro users get access to all models, Free users get a subset. SWE 1.6 is Cognition AI's own code model, specifically optimized for software engineering tasks. Free for Pro and above users. In practice, SWE 1.6 feels about as capable as Claude 4 Sonnet for coding, but slightly weaker at understanding project context.

Pricing

Devin Desktop's pricing is similar to Cursor, with an extra Max tier:

Free: $0, light quota, limited model selection, but unlimited Tab completions and inline edits
Pro: $20/month, full model access, includes Devin cloud agent, daily/weekly quota auto-refresh
Max: $200/month, for power users, significantly higher quotas
Teams: $80/month base + $40/month per developer seat, team management, centralized billing, analytics
Enterprise: contact sales, SAML SSO, dedicated deployment, highest priority support

The Pro price matches Cursor Pro at $20/month. But Devin Desktop's Pro includes Devin cloud agent usage (drawn from your quota), which Cursor doesn't offer.

New users get up to $50 in extra usage credits when they first connect GitHub — enough to try out the cloud agent.

Extra usage is billed at API rates with auto-refill available. Teams/Enterprise can set monthly budget caps (default $160/month).

How It Compares to Cursor

Honestly, the base experience of both IDEs is converging. Both are VS Code forks, both have AI assistants, both support MCP, both can modify code automatically.

But there are real differences:

Where Devin Desktop wins:

Cloud agent (Devin) — keep working even with your laptop closed
Agent Command Center unifies local and cloud tasks
Real-time awareness of your actions — no manual context providing
SWE 1.6 free for software engineering tasks
Message queue — no waiting for AI to finish
Auto lint fixing doesn't consume quota

Where Cursor wins:

More mature, bigger community, more tutorials, easier to find help
Tab completion might still be slightly better (varies by person)
Richer .cursorrules ecosystem
Better VS Code extension compatibility
Simpler pricing — no complex quota system
Cleaner docs, more unified branding

What they share:

VS Code base, nearly identical UI
MCP protocol support
AGENTS.md / .cursorrules for customizing AI behavior
Multi-model switching
Code revert and checkpoint features
Tab completion and inline edits

If you're already happy with Cursor, there's no rush to switch. But if the "local + cloud agent" workflow interests you, Devin Desktop is worth trying.

Pain Points

After using it for a few days, here are the rough edges.

Quota System Is Confusing

Devin Desktop uses a daily/weekly quota auto-refresh mechanism, not Cursor's "500 fast requests per month" model. When you run out, you can buy extra at API pricing.

The problem: it's hard to predict how much you'll use in a day. Some days everything flows smoothly and you have quota left. Other days you're debugging a gnarly issue and burn through it fast. Different models consume different amounts too — Claude 4 Opus costs more than GPT-4o.

Tip: observe your usage patterns for a few days before deciding whether to upgrade to Max.

Some Extensions Are Incompatible

Devin Desktop doesn't play well with other AI code completion extensions (you can't install Copilot alongside it, for example). If you had proprietary extensions in VS Code, some might not work after migrating.

In practice, most common extensions (ESLint, Prettier, GitLens) work fine. But some deeply integrated extensions might need time to be adapted.

Docs Are a Mess

Right now windsurf.com and devin.ai are both in use. The docs alternate between "Windsurf" and "Devin Desktop" naming. Some links go to docs.windsurf.com, others to docs.devin.ai. It's clearly a post-acquisition transition period.

I kept getting confused about which domain to check. My advice: go to docs.windsurf.com — that's where the most complete content lives.

Devin Cloud Agent Latency

Devin cloud agents take 30-60 seconds to spin up because they need to launch a VM and pull your code. For simple tasks, local Cascade is faster and more than enough.

Complex tasks (multi-file debugging, deployment, running test suites) are where Devin cloud shines. Simple variable renames? Local Cascade handles those in seconds.

DeepWiki and Codemaps

Two interesting features worth mentioning.

DeepWiki

DeepWiki helps you quickly understand a codebase. It analyzes project structure, dependencies, and core modules, then generates visual documentation. Great for onboarding to someone else's project or exploring open source.

I tried it on a medium-sized Next.js project. It mapped out the directory structure, API routes, database models, and drew dependency graphs between modules. Not 100% accurate, but as a quick entry point to understanding a project, it's way faster than reading through code yourself.

Codemaps

Codemaps is a visual map of your code — function call chains, data flow, that kind of thing. Helps understand complex logic, especially when the call stack is deep.

These aren't available in Cursor (or at least not in the same way). They're Devin Desktop differentiators.

Actual Usage Tests

I tested Devin Desktop on a few real tasks. Here's what happened.

Task 1: Adding Pagination to an API

Used Cascade Code mode. Told it the requirement, it found the API route file, added page and limit params, modified the database query, and updated the frontend call.

Two minutes, four files. I reviewed the logic, it was correct, accepted it. Clean.

For tasks with clear requirements and well-defined scope, Cascade handles them smoothly.

Task 2: Fixing a Cross-File Bug

Slightly more complex. A bug spanning frontend component, API route, and database query layers. I gave Cascade the error message, it analyzed the stack trace, located the issue (API route returning wrong data format), traced it back to a missing database join.

Three files, about five minutes. It ran tests to verify the fix along the way.

Cursor's Composer could handle this too, but Cascade's advantage is that it runs tests automatically to verify — no need for you to trigger them manually.

Task 3: Delegating to Devin Cloud

The most interesting one. I asked Devin cloud to write unit tests for a utility function.

Cascade analyzed the function logic locally and generated a test plan. I confirmed the plan was good, one-click sent to Devin. Devin spun up its VM, pulled the code, wrote 8 test cases, ran them, fixed one failing test, ran again, all passed, and opened a PR.

The whole thing took about 10 minutes (including VM startup). I watched progress in the Agent Command Center: analyze code, write tests, run tests, fix one failing case, run again, all pass, open PR.

Quality? The 8 test cases covered normal paths and edge cases. One mock wasn't the most elegant, but it worked. Overall, about the same quality I'd produce myself — but it saved me 20 minutes.

Practical Tips

A few things I learned that boost efficiency:

Use @ mentions. Cascade supports @ mentioning files, directories, and previous conversations. Be specific about what files matter — don't make the AI guess.

Write a good AGENTS.md. As mentioned earlier, this file is critical for AI understanding your project. Spend 15 minutes writing one. The time saved pays for itself many times over.

Simple tasks go to Cascade, complex tasks go to Devin. Don't send everything to the cloud — VM startup has latency. Simple tasks are faster with local Cascade.

Use Named Checkpoints. Before big changes, manually create a named snapshot. If the AI messes something up, one-click revert is faster than git stash.

Try Arena Mode. Cascade has an Arena mode where two models answer the same question simultaneously and you pick the better result. Great for comparing how different models handle your specific project.

Set up MCP. If you use n8n, database tools, or similar, configuring MCP servers lets Cascade call them directly — no manual copy-pasting.

Where Devin Desktop Fits in the AI Coding Tool Landscape

There are a lot of AI coding tools now. Let me map them out:

Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf): local IDE + cloud agent, by Cognition AI
Cursor: local IDE, AI-assisted coding, currently the most popular AI IDE
Claude Code: terminal AI coding agent by Anthropic, runs in the command line
Codex CLI: terminal AI coding agent by OpenAI
GitHub Copilot: primarily code completion, also has an agent mode
Augment Code: newer AI coding tool, focuses on context understanding

These tools aren't mutually exclusive. Many people use two or three simultaneously — Cursor for daily coding, Claude Code for terminal tasks, Devin Desktop for long-running jobs.

Devin Desktop's unique position is the "IDE + cloud agent" integrated approach. If you don't want to juggle multiple tools, it might be a good fit.

Some Thoughts on AI Coding Tools

After using so many AI coding tools, I've come to think: the tool itself isn't the most important thing. The workflow is.

Is Cursor good? Yes. Is Claude Code good? Yes. Is Devin Desktop good? Also yes. But if your workflow is "write code, run tests, open PR," these tools fundamentally do the same thing — they help you complete that workflow faster.

What makes Devin Desktop different is that it tries to change the workflow itself. The Agent Command Center's philosophy is: you're no longer the person writing code. You're the person managing agents. You define requirements, agents implement them, you review results.

Whether this approach will become mainstream, I'm not sure. But in certain scenarios (writing tests, fixing simple bugs, repetitive refactoring), this workflow is already working.

Browser Previews: A Frontend Dev's Friend

Devin Desktop has a built-in browser preview. Cascade can launch a browser window to preview your frontend app. Even better — Cascade can "see" what's in the browser. If there's a rendering error or style issue, you can screenshot it and Cascade can locate the corresponding code.

This is super useful for frontend development. Before, you'd change styles, switch to the browser, refresh, check. Now Cascade refreshes the preview automatically after code changes. If something looks off, click "Explain and Fix" and it analyzes and repairs the issue.

I found this noticeably more efficient when tweaking CSS layouts. Cascade can see the preview is wrong and knows how to adjust.

Quick Review: Built-in Code Review

Devin Desktop also has Quick Review — you can do code reviews directly in the IDE without switching to GitHub. See diffs, write comments, approve or request changes, all from the editor.

This is especially convenient with Devin cloud agent PRs — the agent opens a PR, you review it in the IDE, and if there are issues, Cascade fixes them right there. No context switching.

Final Thoughts

Devin Desktop is the most ambitious product in the AI IDE space right now. It's not just trying to be "better autocomplete." It's trying to make AI your coworker. The Agent Command Center, cloud agents, Spaces — they're all pointing in that direction.

Will it work? Hard to say. But as someone who's used both Cursor and Devin Desktop, I think each has its strengths. Cursor is more stable, more mature, with a bigger community. Devin Desktop is more ambitious, more imaginative, but still needs polish.

If you're curious, there's a free tier — downloading it costs nothing. Maybe the cloud agent workflow clicks for you.

Questions? Drop them in the comments.

Written June 2026. Devin Desktop version 2.0. Products iterate fast — some info may be outdated. Check the official docs for the latest.*