Windsurf Is Now Devin Desktop: What Changed and How to Move

Windsurf became Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. Cognition calls it “the next generation of Windsurf”: the same editor, extensions and keybindings, with an Agent Command Center on top for running local and cloud agents side by side. Existing users got it as a normal over-the-air update, and plans and pricing did not change. The one real break came later: on September 8, 2026, the old Cascade agent was removed and Devin Local became the only built-in agent.

This guide covers what changed, what carried over, and how to finish the move cleanly if you are still on an old install.

Read the steps as text

1. Update. Install the latest Devin Desktop over the air, or download it from devin.ai/download.
2. Migrate on first run. Choose "Migrate from Windsurf" to copy extensions, keybindings, snippets and workspace state.
3. Move your conversations. Use the Continue in Devin Local prompt; run the Cascade Migration Wizard for hooks, workflows and memories.
4. Check rules and tools. Confirm rules, MCP servers and the devin-desktop terminal command still work.
5. Update allowlists. Admins add the Devin app name and paths to MDM, endpoint and DLP allowlists.

1. Update. Install the latest Devin Desktop over the air, or download it from devin.ai/download.
2. Migrate on first run. Choose "Migrate from Windsurf" to copy extensions, keybindings, snippets and workspace state.
3. Move your conversations. Use the Continue in Devin Local prompt; run the Cascade Migration Wizard for hooks, workflows and memories.
4. Check rules and tools. Confirm rules, MCP servers and the devin-desktop terminal command still work.
5. Update allowlists. Admins add the Devin app name and paths to MDM, endpoint and DLP allowlists.

What changed

• A new name and a new front door. The app is now Devin.app, Devin.exe or devin on Linux. The Agent Command Center is the main view, a board of every agent session you have running, local or in the cloud. The classic editor is still there.
• A new local agent. Devin Local replaced Cascade. It is the same agent harness as Devin CLI, rewritten in Rust, and Cognition says it is “up to 30% more token efficient” than Cascade. It adds subagents, sandboxing, plan mode, git worktrees and permission rules.
• Other agents can run inside it. Devin Desktop supports the open Agent Client Protocol (ACP), so third-party agents such as Codex and Claude Agent run in the same Command Center as Devin.
• Spaces. A new way to group sessions, pull requests, files and context, and share that context between agents.
• One Devin across surfaces. Desktop, the cloud agent, Devin CLI and Devin Review share the same agent and context, so you can hand work from one to another.

What stayed the same

• Your editor. The announcement says the editor, extensions, keybindings, language servers and workflows are “backwards-compatible with Windsurf and VSCode.”
• Your plan and price. The FAQ says your current plan “continues to work exactly as it does today,” including legacy Windsurf Enterprise. You do not have to move to ACU billing. Devin Local uses the same prompt-credit pricing as Cascade did.
• Your global config folder. ~/.codeium/ is unchanged. It still holds your user settings, MCP config (~/.codeium/mcp_config.json), global workflows, global skills and CLI binaries.
• Your network setup. No network changes are required. Legacy Enterprise login stays at windsurf.com/enterprise.

For plan details, see Devin pricing explained.

Where your files went

On first launch, Devin Desktop offers Migrate from Windsurf or Start fresh. Migrate copies extensions, keybindings, snippets and workspace state into the new Devin folders. It skips caches, logs, crash dumps and Local History. Start fresh copies nothing. If a Devin data folder already exists, the migration copies nothing.

What	Old location (still read)	New location
User data on macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Windsurf/	~/Library/Application Support/Devin/
User data on Windows	%APPDATA%\Windsurf\	%APPDATA%\Devin\
User data on Linux	~/.config/Windsurf/	~/.config/Devin/
Extensions	~/.windsurf/extensions/ (read-only)	~/.devin/extensions/
Workspace rules	.windsurf/rules/ (fallback)	.devin/rules/ (takes precedence)
Workspace workflows	.windsurf/workflows/	.devin/workflows/

Rules in .windsurfrules, AGENTS.md and agents.md are still read. Cursor’s .cursor/rules files can be imported into .devin/rules/.

Cascade versus Devin Local

Cascade stayed available through July so teams could move gradually. Since version 3.9.19 on September 8, 2026, it is gone, and the changelog points to the Continue in Devin Local prompt to move old conversations to the new agent.

Two tools from the summer releases help with the rest. Version 3.5.17 added a command to migrate Windsurf hooks into Devin hooks across all workspace folders. Version 3.6.22 added a guided Cascade Migration Wizard for hooks, workflows and memories.

Devin Local inherits your Windsurf settings. Its modes are Code, Smart, Ask, Plan and Bypass Permissions, and its allow, ask and deny rules control what it may run on your machine.

The terminal command

The surf command has been replaced by devin-desktop. Install it from the command palette with Shell Command: Install ‘devin-desktop’ command in PATH. The old surf and windsurf binaries remain in ~/.codeium/windsurf/bin/, and you can alias surf to devin-desktop. Devin CLI is separate and updates itself.

If you use JetBrains

The Windsurf plugin for JetBrains IDEs keeps its old name, and the FAQ says it is “in maintenance mode.” Cascade inside it is being deprecated, and newer JetBrains releases can break it. The plugin still ships fixes: version 2.12.28 on October 3, 2026 fixed a crash on M6 Macs. Cognition recommends moving to Devin over ACP inside your JetBrains IDE, using its JetBrains ACP setup guide.

For admins

• Add the new app names (Devin.app, Devin.exe, devin) to MDM and application allowlists.
• Allow the Devin, .devin, .codeium and .windsurf paths for your operating system in endpoint and DLP tools.
• Docs and changelogs now live on docs.devin.ai; add that host if your network restricts access.
• Auto-update still uses update.windsurf.com and windsurf-stable.codeiumdata.com. Remote SSH and Dev Container machines need windsurf-stable.codeiumdata.com on port 443.
• Rules, workflows and skills can be deployed system-wide from /Library/Application Support/Devin/ (macOS), C:\ProgramData\Devin\ (Windows) or /etc/devin/ (Linux).

Common problems and fixes

Problem	What to do
Extensions or settings missing after the move	Version 3.0.21 added a command to rerun the migration from Windsurf, which resets settings so you can import them again. Remember the migration copies nothing if a Devin folder already exists.
Settings did not move on a Windows system-wide install	Fixed in version 3.3.18 (June 23, 2026). Update to the latest release.
Windows shortcut lost its icon	Fixed in version 3.0.28 (June 6, 2026).
Old Cascade conversations are gone	Use the Continue in Devin Local prompt to bring them into the new agent.
surf no longer opens files	Install the devin-desktop shell command, or alias surf to it.
JetBrains plugin broke after an IDE update	The legacy plugin may not support the newest IDE versions. Switch to Devin over ACP.
Need an older version	Older installers are on the releases page, but Cognition considers “every release but the latest to be deprecated” and does not recommend it.

Is the move worth it?

For most Windsurf users the move already happened automatically, so the real question is whether to use the new pieces. The Agent Command Center pays off once you run more than one agent: a local Devin Local session in one column, a cloud Devin session on a long migration in another, and a third-party ACP agent beside them. If you only want an AI editor, the editor you had still works the way it did.

Related

• Cloud, Desktop and CLI: where Devin runs
• Devin vs Windsurf
• Devin glossary

Sources

1. Windsurf is now Devin Desktop — devin.ai, June 2, 2026
2. Devin Desktop FAQ — docs.devin.ai
3. Devin Desktop changelog — docs.devin.ai
4. Devin Local — docs.devin.ai
5. Agent Client Protocol in Devin Desktop — docs.devin.ai
6. Windsurf JetBrains plugin changelog — docs.devin.ai

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