Windsurf

1. Agent Command Center
   This is probably the most distinctive part of Devin Desktop.

   The simplest way to think about it is as a dedicated board for managing agent tasks. You can see which tasks are currently running, which ones are finished, and which ones are waiting for human approval.

   I didn’t fully understand why it was designed this way until I had three tasks running at the same time.

   One agent was fixing a login bug, another was adding tests, and a third was dealing with a build issue.

   If all of that had been split across three chat windows, I’d probably have been clicking back and forth constantly.

   Once everything is on the board, it’s immediately obvious which task is stuck.

2. Spaces
   Spaces are basically separate workspaces for different projects.

   Each Space has its own code, context, and Git environment.

   The practical benefit is that every time you launch a new agent, you don’t have to explain from scratch what the project does, how the directories are structured, or what rules it should follow.

   That background information can persist inside the Space.

   On its own, this feature doesn’t sound particularly exciting. But in a multi-agent setup, it matters a lot.

   Otherwise, having three agents each relearn the project from scratch is just wasteful.

3. Devin Local
   Devin Local is now the main agent for local tasks.

   Compared with Cascade in the old Windsurf, it feels more independent.

   Instead of sitting beside the editor waiting for you to ask something, it can take on a complete chunk of work by itself.

   The biggest difference I noticed wasn’t that the code suddenly became dramatically smarter. It was that the workflow felt more direct.

   Searching the project, changing several related files, and then running checks all felt smoother as one continuous process.

   That said, this sense of “speed” is mostly about workflow. If the task itself is difficult, the final result still depends on the underlying model.

4. Devin Cloud
   Devin Cloud is probably the part of Cognition’s product line I find most interesting.

   Once you hand it a task, it can run independently in a cloud environment. You don’t need to keep your computer on.

   It can pull the code, make changes, run tests, and eventually submit a PR.

   These are the kinds of tasks I’m more willing to hand off to it.

   For example: adding a batch of tests, upgrading dependencies, or dealing with a non-urgent bug.

   Those tasks don’t necessarily require me to watch every step.

   For core business logic, though, I’d still rather keep the work local and monitor it myself.

5. Devin Review
   Just because an agent has finished writing code doesn’t mean the task is done.

   Devin Desktop also brings the review process into the IDE.

   You can inspect what changed, see what still needs adjustment, and then decide whether the code should be merged.

   I think this is a very practical design choice.

   A lot of AI coding tools focus on how much code they can generate. But in real development work, one of the most mentally expensive questions is often:

   “Is this code actually good enough to keep?”

   You can’t really skip the review step.

6. ACP support
   Devin Desktop supports the Agent Client Protocol.

   Regular users don’t really need to care about the protocol name itself. The value is much simpler:

   You don’t have to use only Devin.

   Claude Agent, Codex, and other compatible agents can all be managed in the same environment.

   If different agents end up being better at different kinds of work, this kind of setup will feel much better than being locked into a single model.

I used Devin Desktop for a week on a small React project.

I didn’t start by launching a bunch of agents at once.

At first, I only ran one and asked it to fix a component state synchronization issue.

That part didn’t feel dramatically different from other mainstream AI coding tools.

It read the code, changed the files, and ran a check.

The point where the product really started to feel different was when I ran three tasks at the same time.

One was fixing a bug, another was adding tests, and the third was working on a deployment script.

That’s when the Agent Command Center started to make sense.

When I used to have several Cursor sessions open at once, I’d quickly forget which window was doing what.

In Devin Desktop, every task is on one board, and the status of each one is much clearer.

I liked that a lot.

Not because it’s some incredibly advanced idea, but because it solves a very practical problem:

once you have enough agents running, the human gets confused first.

The local agent feels fast

Devin Local feels more responsive to me than Cascade did.

It’s especially noticeable when it’s inspecting the project structure, doing global searches, or making small changes across several files.

There’s less of that feeling that you’re waiting around for the AI to think forever.

I wouldn’t exaggerate the difference, though.

For genuinely complex tasks, you still have to wait.

Rewriting the tooling in Rust can improve the performance of the product itself, but it doesn’t suddenly make the model a whole tier smarter.

Don’t get too optimistic about UI generation

I also asked it to build a simple merchant admin dashboard.

The result was usable and functional, but I wouldn’t ship it as-is.

The overall structure was fine.

It had the basics: tables, filters, navigation.

But the details were pretty average.

The spacing felt mechanical, the visual hierarchy was flat, and the handling of images and empty states was fairly casual.

This result felt very familiar.

A lot of agents can now get you to an “80% framework” for admin interfaces.

The last 20% is still where the work is.

If it’s an internal tool, that may already be good enough.

If it’s a user-facing product page, I’d still take over and refine it myself.

The biggest adjustment isn’t the features — it’s the workflow

What you really have to get used to with Devin Desktop isn’t where the buttons are.

It’s learning how to delegate work.

When I used to open an IDE, my first thought was: what do I need to write?

After using Devin Desktop for a while, I started thinking:

Is this task worth doing myself?

Can I hand it to a local agent?

Should I send it to the cloud?

Can I split it into two parallel tasks?

That already feels a bit different from traditional programming.

Sometimes it feels great.

Sometimes it feels like extra overhead.

If I just want to change two lines of CSS, having to think about whether I should “create a task” is obviously overkill.

So I use it fairly selectively now.

Small changes, I do myself.

Repetitive, independent, easy-to-verify tasks go to agents.

That balance feels much better.

Pros

Multi-agent management is intuitive
Once you’re actually running several tasks at the same time, a board is much easier to manage than multiple chat windows.

Local and cloud tasks live in one place
You don’t have to remember which machine or browser tab a particular task is running in.

It supports third-party agents
ACP means you’re not completely locked into the Devin ecosystem.

Spaces reduce repeated explanations
Project context can persist, which becomes especially useful when multiple agents are working on the same codebase.

The workflow is fairly complete
Task assignment, execution, review, and merging can all happen in roughly the same environment.

Cons

There’s more of a learning curve than with a normal IDE
If you’re used to code completion and chat, it takes some time to adjust to task orchestration.

The default model isn’t always satisfying
It’s fine for ordinary work, but complex logic and UI details can still expose its weaknesses.

It feels heavy for small tasks
For a two-line change, launching an agent can actually be slower than just writing it yourself.

More agents can mean more review pressure
If three agents finish at the same time, you still have three results to review.

Cloud tasks still need oversight
They’re useful for independent work, but I still wouldn’t fully hand over critical business logic.

Who it’s good for

People who regularly handle several development tasks in parallel

If you’re already juggling bug fixes, tests, and deployment work at the same time, the value of the task board becomes obvious quickly.

Team leads and tech leads

If your job is less about writing every line yourself and more about assigning work, tracking progress, and reviewing results, this workflow fits well.

People already using a lot of AI coding tools

If you’re already switching between Claude, Codex, Cursor, and similar tools, the idea of managing them in one place is quite appealing.

People willing to adapt their workflow

This isn’t just another editor.

You have to be comfortable with development starting to feel more like task orchestration.

Who it’s not ideal for

Programming beginners

Learning the code itself matters more.

Multi-agent management mostly adds unnecessary overhead at that stage.

People who only want code completion

If all you want is help filling in a few lines of code, Cursor or a VS Code extension is much simpler.

People working mostly on very small projects

If there aren’t enough tasks to run in parallel, the Agent Command Center doesn’t have much room to show its value.

People who don’t want to review AI output at all

Right now, there still isn’t an agent I’d trust enough for that.

What I find most interesting about Devin Desktop isn’t that it gives you yet another more powerful agent.

It’s that it’s starting to seriously address a new problem:

what happens when you have too many agents to manage?

That problem barely existed before.

Most people had, at most, one AI chat window.

Now a single developer can have several local agents running at once, send a few more tasks to the cloud, and mix in tools like Claude and Codex at the same time.

As the tools become more capable, humans increasingly need a place to manage all of them.

That’s the position Devin Desktop is trying to take.

After using it for a week, I think the direction makes sense.

At least when I had three tasks running at the same time, I definitely didn’t want to go back to switching between three separate chat windows.

That said, I still wouldn’t make Devin Desktop the default entry point for every development task.

Small changes, I’ll still write myself.

Core logic, I’ll still review closely.

The tasks that make the most sense to hand off are the ones with clear boundaries, room to run in parallel, and results that are easy to verify afterward.

If agents eventually become a standard part of every developer’s toolkit, products like Devin Desktop may become much more common.

But right now, it makes the most sense for people who are already at the point of managing several AIs at once.

If you’re not there yet, there’s no need to rush.

Editor’s recommendation

My own approach would be fairly conservative.

For individual users: start with Free, then move to Pro.

I’d only consider Max if I were running a large number of agent tasks every day and consistently hitting the limits.

Teams shouldn’t start by putting everyone on the highest tier either.

Pick a few developers, run it on real projects, and see whether it actually saves meaningful time before expanding the rollout.

Tools like this are hard to judge from demos alone.

You really have to put them into your own projects to know whether they’re worth it.