Cognition turns Windsurf into Devin Desktop, a command center for coding agents

Why it matters

Cognition is turning Devin from a cloud coding agent into a developer desktop surface, a bid to own where software teams assign, monitor and merge agent work.

Cognition launched Devin Desktop on Tuesday, turning Windsurf into what the company calls an "Agent Command Center" for managing local and cloud coding agents from one editor surface.

The new app builds on Windsurf's IDE foundation and makes a Kanban-style view the default interface for tracking agent work. Cognition said in a launch thread on X that developers can plan work, delegate tasks, review output and ship without leaving the development environment.

Cognition is also adding Spaces, a way to group sessions, pull requests, files and other context so multiple agents can work from the same shared state. The company is framing Devin Desktop as a bridge between local planning and longer-running cloud execution: plan locally, hand work to the cloud, and Devin continues after a laptop is closed, according to the thread.

The bigger strategic move is that Devin Desktop is not limited to Devin. Cognition said the app supports Agent Client Protocol, or ACP, an open-source protocol that lets compatible agents run inside ACP-compatible editors. At launch, Devin Desktop supports Codex, Claude Agent, OpenCode and other ACP-compatible agents, including in-house agents built by teams. Third-party agents get the same interface as Devin, including the Kanban view and Spaces.

The company said Devin Desktop remains a full IDE, with editor features, extensions, keybindings, language server protocol support and workflows that are backwards-compatible with Windsurf and VS Code. Cognition also said Devin Desktop will arrive for existing Windsurf users as a standard over-the-air update, with plan, pricing, extensions and other features unchanged.

Cognition also introduced Devin Local, the successor to Cascade as its primary local agent. The company said Devin Local was rewritten from scratch in Rust, supports the same capabilities and settings as Cascade, is up to 30% more token efficient and supports newer features including subagents. Developers can keep using the legacy Cascade agent through July 1.

Cognition positioned the launch as part of a broader push to put Devin across every surface: Devin Desktop for agent management inside an IDE, Devin Cloud for autonomous long-running cloud work, Devin CLI for terminal use and Devin Review for code review. The company quoted design partners and customers including Ramp, Harvey, NVIDIA, Modal and Intact Financial on multi-agent workflows and local execution.

Developers can download Devin Desktop now. The launch still leaves open how Cognition will price heavy multi-agent and cloud-backed usage if Devin Desktop becomes the main entry point for teams coordinating agent work.