# Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) — The agentic IDE that was Codeium, then Windsurf, now Cognition’s Devin Desktop, a command centre for coding agents.

> Source: The Agents Index — https://theagentsindex.com/windsurf (structured, researched, re-verified)
> Facts last verified: 2026-07-24

Windsurf is the agentic code editor that began as Codeium, rebranded to Windsurf, and, after Cognition acquired it in 2025, became Devin Desktop in June 2026. It is a standalone IDE (a VS Code-style editor) rather than a plugin, built around an in-editor coding agent with deep whole-repository context. Under Cognition it has been repositioned from a single-agent editor into an “agent command centre”: the app now opens on a Kanban board for managing many local and cloud agents, with the full IDE behind it. Its original Cascade agent was retired on 1 July 2026 in favour of Devin Local.

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Website | https://devin.ai/desktop |
| Best for | Developers who want a full, agent-native desktop IDE and the freedom to run several coding agents — including third-party ones — side by side. |
| Not for | People who prefer a lightweight VS Code extension, or who were attached to the independent Windsurf/Cascade product that Cognition has now folded into Devin. |

## Verdict

Windsurf was one of the best agentic IDEs of its generation, and as Devin Desktop it is now something more ambitious: a vendor-neutral command centre where local and cloud agents, Cognition’s own plus Claude Agent, Codex and Gemini CLI via the open ACP, run inside one polished editor. That openness is a real differentiator in a field of walled-garden tools, and the shared free/$20 subscription with Devin makes it easy to try. The cost is turbulence: Codeium became Windsurf, Windsurf became Devin Desktop, and the original Cascade agent was switched off on 1 July 2026, a lot of change for a tool teams use daily. Its default SWE models are also a notch behind frontier models on the hardest tasks, though you can route to those. Pick it if you want an open, multi-agent desktop IDE and are comfortable inside Cognition’s ecosystem; skip it if you want a lightweight editor extension or you specifically wanted the standalone Windsurf that no longer exists.

## Strengths and weaknesses

- ✓ Mature, familiar VS Code-style IDE with strong autocomplete and whole-repo context.
- ✓ The open Agent Client Protocol lets you run multiple vendors’ agents in one editor, a genuine differentiator.
- ✓ Free tier and $20 Pro entry point, shared with Devin’s cloud agents.
- ✗ Heavy brand and product churn: Codeium → Windsurf → Devin Desktop, and the original Cascade agent was retired on 1 July 2026, disruptive for teams that depend on it daily.
- ✗ Now tied to Cognition’s roadmap and its unified quota billing; the independent Windsurf identity is gone.
- ✗ As an installed desktop IDE it is a heavier commitment than a VS Code extension, and its default SWE models trail the top frontier models on the hardest tasks.
- ✗ On 2026-03-19, Windsurf dropped its flexible monthly credit pool for rate-limited daily/weekly quotas and raised the Pro plan from $15 to $20/month, usage now resets on a schedule rather than pooling for one big push, which drew real user backlash over reduced flexibility.
- ⚠ The Cascade agent name is deprecated; new work uses Devin Local, so older tutorials referencing Cascade are out of date.
- ⚠ It is an interactive desktop editor, not a headless CI agent; for async delegation use Devin’s cloud agent.

## Key features

- **Agent Command Center** — The app opens on a Kanban board for launching and steering many local and cloud agents from one place, with the full IDE behind it.
- **Agent Client Protocol (ACP)** — An open editor-agent standard that lets Devin, Claude Agent, Codex and Gemini CLI run natively inside the editor instead of being locked to one vendor.
- **Supercomplete & Fast Context** — Predictive multi-line completion plus fast whole-codebase retrieval to ground the agent’s edits.
- **Spaces (Git worktrees)** — Shares context across agents using Git worktrees so several can work in parallel without conflicts.

## Use cases

- **Interactive pair-coding** — A developer edits in the IDE while the agent handles cross-file plumbing and predictive completion.
- **Orchestrating multiple agents** — Run several local and cloud agents in parallel from the command centre and merge their work through Spaces.
- **Vendor-neutral agent workbench** — Use Claude Agent, Codex or Gemini CLI side by side inside one editor via ACP.

## Integrations

Git & GitHub · MCP servers · Third-party agents via ACP (Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini CLI) · Model providers — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google

## Sources

- https://devin.ai/pricing
- https://devin.ai/desktop
- https://www.cloudzero.com/blog/windsurf-pricing/
- https://www.infoworld.com/article/4023030/cognition-agrees-to-buy-whats-left-of-windsurf.html