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Devin Local is our next-generation agent harness shared with Devin CLI. It operates on your machine with access to your local files, tools, and environment and is meant to eventually replace Cascade as the primary local agent.
Devin Local is currently in preview and has some limitations compared to Cascade. Devin Local is not supported in the JetBrains plugin for Devin Desktop.

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Key improvements

In the time since Cascade first launched, model capabilities have evolved significantly. Devin Local is built from the ground up to efficiently leverage these advancements.

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Token efficiency

The Devin Local agent is significantly more token-efficient, with a greater focus on prompt caching. Most tasks take up to 30% fewer tokens than Cascade to accomplish the same result.

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Subagents

The Devin Local agent can spawn independent subagents to handle subtasks — either in the foreground or background. Subagents share tools and codebase context with the parent agent but operate in their own conversation chain.

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Sandboxing

The Devin Local agent supports OS-level sandboxing. When enabled, the sandbox enforces:
  • Filesystem isolation — writable and readable paths are derived from your permission scopes
  • Network filtering — domain allowlists and denylists control what the agent can reach
Enterprise admins can enforce sandbox behavior across the organization through team settings, including requiring sandbox mode for all users and configuring organization-wide domain filtering rules.

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Quick Review

Quick Review is a dedicated subagent available with the Devin Local agent to get rapid feedback on changes.

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Switching your agent

In most cases, you can switch your agent to Devin Local when starting new conversations via the agent selector in the bottom right corner of Devin Desktop.

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Agent settings

If Devin Local doesn’t appear in the agent selector, you might need to enable it from Windsurf Settings:
  1. Open the Command Palette with Cmd+Shift+P (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux)
  2. Open Windsurf User Settings
  3. Click the “Agents” tab
  4. Toggle the “Devin Local” agent on
  5. Restart Devin Desktop
You can also choose to disable Cascade entirely with the windsurf.cascade.enabled setting.

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Differences

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Permissions model

Devin Local replaces auto-execution levels with a more fine-grained permissions system to control which actions the agent can take:
  • Deny rules block actions entirely (highest priority)
  • Ask rules always prompt for approval
  • Allow rules auto-approve actions without prompting
Permissions can be scoped to file reads, file writes, command execution, HTTP fetches, and MCP tools. They can be configured at the project, user, or organization level.

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MCP permissions

Unlike Cascade, the default configuration of the Devin Local agent prompts for approval before calling any MCP tool. When the agent wants to invoke an MCP tool, you can allow the specific tool or every tool on that MCP server, either for the current session or permanently.
Enterprise admins can default-allow specific MCP servers or tools so that trusted integrations don’t prompt every time. See tool-based permissions for how to configure these rules.

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MCP server configuration

With the Devin Local agent, MCP servers are configured via config files on your local machine. The file location is determined by the scope:
ScopeLocationShared with team?
Project.devin/config.jsonYes (checked into version control)
Local override.devin/config.local.jsonNo (gitignored)
User~/.config/devin/config.jsonNo

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Skills

Skills are reusable, model-invoked bundles of instructions (and optional scripts) that extend what the Devin Local agent can do. Because Devin Local shares the same agent harness as Devin CLI, it uses the same skills format and discovery mechanism. Skills are also the recommended way to migrate Cascade memories and workflows, which aren’t supported by the Devin Local agent (see Limitations) — capture a repeatable procedure once and the agent invokes it automatically when relevant. See the Devin CLI skills documentation for details on how to create, configure, and scope skills.

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Limitations

The following features are not currently supported with the Devin Local agent:
  • Memories — The Devin Local agent does not persist memories between sessions. Migrate your critical memories to skills.
  • Workflows — Workflows are not available with the Devin Local agent. Migrate your workflows to skills.
  • Codemaps — The Devin Local agent does not yet read codemaps.
  • Code Lenses - Currently code lenses do not yet trigger the Devin Local agent.
  • Fast Context - Devin Local uses subagents to explore code, but doesn’t have the same fast context UI as Cascade.
  • App Deploys - The Devin Local agent does not support app deploys.
  • Conversation Sharing - Conversation sharing is not yet available with the Devin Local agent.
The Devin Local agent does support rules and AGENTS.md files as well as skills for providing persistent context and reusable workflows.

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Analytics

The Devin Local agent does not yet report all of the analytics that Cascade collects. The following data is collected for Cascade but not for Devin Local:
  • Tool usage — The cascade_tool_usage data source (per-tool call counts such as Code Edit, Run Command, Search Web, and MCP Tool) only includes Cascade sessions. Tool calls made by the Devin Local agent are not reported. To monitor or restrict tool usage with the Devin Local agent, use hooks and permissions instead.
  • Lines suggested and accepted — The cascade_lines data source (daily lines of code suggested and accepted) does not include code written by the Devin Local agent.
  • Write/Read mode — The Devin Local agent does not report a Cascade mode, so the mode field in the cascade_runs data source is not populated for Devin Local activity.
Devin Local activity is still included in the cascade_runs data source (model usage, messages sent, and credit consumption) and in the Cascade Data source of the Custom Analytics API. The Devin CLI does not report analytics for hybrid deployments.

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Enterprise controls

Enterprise admins can configure the Devin Local agent through team settings, including new controls only available with the Devin Local agent:
  • Sandbox enforcement - Require sandbox mode for all users and configure organization-wide domain filtering rules
  • Granular permissions - Control which actions the agent can take with more fine-grained permissions
  • Network enforcement - Control network access with allowed and denied domains
Additionally, the “Enable Cascade” control can be used to disable the legacy Cascade agent entirely to ensure your team follows the new controls available with Devin CLI.

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Unsupported enterprise controls

The following legacy enterprise controls are not available with the Devin Local agent:
  • Restrict Tool Calls to Workspace - by default, the Devin Local agent can only read/edit files within the workspace. Custom permissions are a more flexible replacement that can be used to replicate the same rules.
  • App Deploys - App deploys are not yet supported with the Devin Local agent.
  • Conversation Sharing - Conversation sharing is not yet supported with the Devin Local agent.
  • Auto Run Terminal Commands - The Devin Local agent uses its own permissions model instead of auto-execution levels.
  • Attribution Filtering - Attribution filtering is not yet supported with the Devin Local agent.
  • Enable or disable Cascade for your team - This setting only controls the legacy Cascade agent and does not apply to the Devin Local agent or the Devin CLI.
  • Global tool calling disabled - If you previously disabled tool calling entirely, write an equivalent permission policy for Devin CLI instead.
  • Terminal allow lists - Implement an equivalent permission policy for Devin CLI to allow specific terminal commands.
  • Terminal deny lists - Implement an equivalent permission policy for Devin CLI to deny specific terminal commands.

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Further reading