Partner POV | The future of Windsurf at Cognition

Article provided by, Akshat Agrawal, Windsurf & Walden Yan, Cognition. 

We know change can feel uncertain, especially when it involves the tools you rely on every day. That's why we want to address your questions directly and share our vision for Windsurf's future following our partnership with Cognition.

Windsurf Remains Windsurf

First and foremost: Windsurf will remain the Windsurf you know and love. Our human-in-the-loop philosophy isn't changing; it's getting stronger. We're committed to continuing to invest in Windsurf as a standalone product, without forcing the adoption of additional products like Devin alongside it.

We recognize that Windsurf and Devin serve different needs in the market. Windsurf excels at augmenting developer experience through intelligent collaboration flows, while Devin focuses on fully autonomous software agents. We strongly believe in your ability to choose the solution that best suits your workflow, or both.

Why This Acquisition Makes Sense

This came together because of a shared vision: to build the most comprehensive AI coding solution on the market.

Cognition had wanted to build an IDE that could seamlessly integrate with autonomous agents. We had wanted to build out autonomous agents that would complement our IDE and plugins. It was a perfect match between two teams with complementary strengths working toward the same goal.

We now offer the market-leading solution for developers who want human-in-the-loop collaboration, as well as the market-leading solution for those interested in fully autonomous coding agents. The possibilities are extremely exciting.

Your Control, Your Choice

We understand the importance of stability and predictability in your development environment. That's why we want to be transparent about our plans going forward:

• Windsurf stays Windsurf: Windsurf will continue to exist as a standalone product, in the form factor you know and love
• Continued plugin support: Our support for plugins and the broader Windsurf ecosystem remains unchanged
• Investment in R&D: Cognition's incredible engineering and research team is now committed to supporting Windsurf and making it even better

What's Next?

The exciting part about this partnership is how Devin and Windsurf's roadmaps naturally complement each other. While they serve different use cases today, we're actively working on integrations that will give you the best of both worlds when you need them.

Here's what we're building:

• Seamless handoffs: Imagine starting a complex refactoring task in Windsurf with full human oversight, then seamlessly handing off repetitive implementation work to Devin when you're confident in the direction. You stay in control of the architecture and critical decisions while autonomous agents handle the tedious parts.
• Shared context and learning: Both tools will benefit from shared understanding of your codebase, coding patterns, and preferences. The context you build up in Windsurf will make Devin more effective, and insights from Devin's autonomous work will enhance Windsurf's suggestions.
• Flexible workflows: Some tasks are perfect for human-in-the-loop collaboration. Others benefit from full autonomy. Most complex projects need both at different stages. Our integrated roadmap ensures you can choose the right tool for each moment without losing context or momentum.

A key point here is whether you want to stay purely in Windsurf's collaborative mode, leverage Devin for specific autonomous tasks, or blend both approaches, the choice remains entirely yours.

tl;dr

At the end of the day, our mission hasn't changed: we're building to improve efficiency of the SDLC by 99%. This partnership provides us with the resources and expertise to accelerate our mission. You'll get a more powerful Windsurf, backed by a larger team of world-class engineers and researchers, all while maintaining the core experience that brought you to Windsurf in the first place.

We're excited about this next chapter and grateful for your continued trust in Windsurf. Together, we're building the future of AI-assisted development—one that keeps humans at the center of the creative process.