Cognition launches Devin Desktop for managing AI coding agents across engineering workflows

Cognition has launched Devin Desktop, a software development environment that combines a full code editor with tools for coordinating AI agents across engineering projects.

The product is described as the next generation of Windsurf and brings Devin into a broader desktop workflow. Cognition said the same Devin agent can now run across desktop, cloud, and command-line surfaces, giving engineering teams a more consistent way to work with AI agents across different development environments.

Devin Desktop adds an agent management layer to Windsurf

Devin Desktop combines an IDE with a dashboard for managing local and cloud agents. Cognition said developers can use it to coordinate AI agents running across projects, codebases, tasks, and environments.

The product also introduces Spaces, a feature for grouping agents by project and sharing context across sessions, pull requests, files, and tasks. That gives teams a way to organise agent activity around specific engineering work rather than treating each agent session as a separate interaction.

Theodor Marcu, Head of Product Growth at Cognition, said, “Software engineering is being transformed faster than most people realise,” adding, “The question for engineering leaders is no longer whether to use AI — it is how to manage a growing fleet of agents working across their organisation simultaneously. Devin Desktop is our answer to that question: a single place where every agent, from any provider, can be coordinated, monitored, and directed.”

Cognition said Devin Desktop keeps the tools, settings, and workflows that were already available in Windsurf. The company is positioning the product as a continuation of the editor, with agent coordination added around it, rather than a separate development environment that requires teams to rebuild their workflows.

ACP opens Devin Desktop to third-party and internal agents

A key part of Devin Desktop is support for the Agent Client Protocol, or ACP. Cognition describes ACP as an open standard that allows compatible AI agents, including third-party and in-house agents, to run inside Devin Desktop alongside Devin.

At launch, Devin Desktop supports Codex, Claude Agent, OpenCode, and other ACP-compatible agents. Cognition said these agents can appear in the same dashboard, run inside Spaces, and share context with other agents.

That structure gives engineering teams a way to manage multiple AI coding tools from a single interface, if those tools support ACP. It may also be useful for companies that have built internal agents for specialised engineering workflows and want them to operate alongside commercial AI agents.

Cognition also plans to introduce an agent router in the coming weeks. The company said the router will direct tasks to the agent or model that can complete them most efficiently. Businesses will be able to configure the router to balance performance and cost, with more powerful and expensive models reserved for more demanding work.

For regulated industries, Cognition said proprietary or custom-built agents can be managed alongside Devin in the same interface and with the same context. The company also described ACP as a foundation for Devin to manage subagents and other agents directly, including delegation, coordination, and handoffs.

Devin Local replaces Cascade

Devin Desktop introduces Devin Local, which Cognition describes as a faster and more capable successor to Cascade.

The company said Devin Local has been rebuilt by its engineering team and delivers up to 30% greater efficiency than its predecessor. It also supports newer agent capabilities, including subagents, while carrying over existing settings and workflows. Cognition did not provide benchmark details or methodology for the efficiency claim in the material provided.

The wider Devin product line now spans several surfaces. Devin Desktop combines the agent manager with a full IDE. Devin Cloud runs the autonomous and long-running Devin agent on its own machine in the cloud. Devin CLI brings Devin into the terminal, while Devin Review is designed for code review on every diff.

Cognition also included comments from organisations including Ramp, Harvey AI, NVIDIA, Modal, and Intact Financial. Their comments point to a common issue in AI-assisted software development: teams may already be using multiple agents, but coordination, shared context, permissions, and task routing remain operational questions.

Shayon Hariri, Research Engineer at Ramp, said, “Devin Desktop makes it easy to dispatch and monitor our array of agents from a single command centre. We’re excited to partner with Cognition to bring the agents Ramp engineers already use into one shared workspace, making it easier to jump between tasks, preserve context, and get more done.” For engineering leaders, the unresolved details will shape how useful Devin Desktop becomes in production environments.

Cognition has not disclosed pricing, market availability, enterprise deployment terms, security controls, ACP compatibility requirements, or independent evidence for its stated performance gains.