Windsurf / Devin Desktop (windsurf)

Output

AGENTS.md                            # shared pointer body (dedup with the other AGENTS.md consumers)
.devin/rules/<name>.md
<scope>/.devin/rules/<name>.md       # one per scoped rule
.devin/agents/<name>.md              # one per agent (custom subagent profile)
.agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md       # one folder per skill (shared tree with codex/amp/zed/crush/openhands)
.devinignore                         # when ignore entries exist
.devin/mcp_config.json               # when MCP entries exist
.devin/hooks.v1.json                 # when hook entries exist

Windsurf became Devin Desktop (2026-06). Devin Desktop prefers .devin/rules/*.md and keeps .windsurf/rules/ as a backward-compat fallback (.windsurfrules is legacy), so rules now emit at the preferred path. The target keeps its windsurf name: existing outputs.windsurf.* keys and x-windsurf meta continue to work.

Set outputs.windsurf.rules-dir: .windsurf/rules to stay on the old layout; otherwise sync sweeps managed leftovers at the pre-rename path (hand-authored files survive). Devin also reads the cross-tool root AGENTS.md, so sync distributes the shared pointer body there (see the entry-point table above, #645).

• Agents: one custom subagent profile per agent at .devin/agents/<name>.md. Devin's docs call this "Custom subagents are defined as markdown files under agents/", project layout .devin/agents/, "Flat file: agents/<name>.md" (docs.devin.ai/cli/subagents). Frontmatter carries name, description, model, allowed-tools, and max-nesting; the body after the closing delimiter is the subagent's system prompt.

  • Agents used to flatten into .devin/rules/agent-<name>.md, which reached the rules loader instead of the subagent loader and had no key for any of those five fields (target-audit 2026-08-27, #638). A managed copy at the old name is swept for every current agent. A scoped agent lands flat here, since Devin documents sub-directory discovery for rules only.
  • allowed-tools translates agnostic-ai's Claude-style names onto the five Devin publishes as its complete set: read, edit, grep, glob, exec (docs.devin.ai/cli/reference/permissions). Read/Grep/Glob/Bash map one-to-one onto read/grep/glob/exec. Write and Edit both collapse onto edit, so an agent declaring only Write also gains edit capability. An mcp__<server>__<tool> name passes through untranslated. Anything else drops with a coverage note rather than shipping a name the vendor never documented.
  • Set x-windsurf.allowed-tools to write Devin's vocabulary directly, and x-windsurf.max-nesting for the nesting override, which has no generic spec field. model passes through verbatim, since the vendor's own example pins model: sonnet. The vendor caveat holds: "Custom subagents are experimental. The format, behavior, and configuration options may change in future releases."

• Scoped rules: a scoped rule lands at <scope>/.devin/rules/<name>.md, not nested inside the root rules dir. Devin reads ".devin/rules or .windsurf/rules in any sub-directory of your workspace" (docs.devin.ai/desktop/cascade/memories) and globs each one single-level as .devin/rules/*.md (docs.devin.ai/cli/extensibility/rules). The old .devin/rules/<scope>/<name>.md reached no documented discovery path (target-audit 2026-08-27, #628), so sync sweeps the old nested tree through the ledger.

  • With outputs.windsurf.rules-dir set, the prefix follows it, so the legacy layout scopes to <scope>/.windsurf/rules/<name>.md. Devin CLI loads a sub-directory rules dir lazily, when the agent touches files there; Devin Desktop discovers every one of them at session start. The scope narrows what the CLI sees, not what Desktop sees.

• Rule activation: a rule that sets alwaysApply: false carries a trigger frontmatter key, the activation mode Devin reads.

  Rule has	Emitted trigger
  globs	trigger: glob (plus the pattern verbatim)
  description alone	trigger: model_decision
  neither	trigger: manual

  An always-on rule stays bare: Devin loads a file with no frontmatter as always-on, and its Always On mode puts the full body in the system prompt on every message, so a description has no job there. Devin's fifth documented value, agent, has no counterpart in the spec format and is never emitted. Before this, no rule file carried frontmatter, so alwaysApply: false was silently promoted to always-on (#628).

• Skills: one folder per skill under .agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. Devin documents .agents/skills/, .devin/skills/, and .windsurf/skills/ as project paths. This adapter writes the shared first path so identical skills dedupe with Codex, Amp, Zed, Crush, OpenHands, Antigravity, Augment, and Kilo.

  • Native triggers values move under x-windsurf in the source spec, then return to top-level frontmatter on sync. This preserves [user], [model], and combined invocation policy without leaking a Devin-only field to other targets. Sibling assets and modes survive every path.

• Ignore: ignore specs emit as .devinignore, gitignore syntax under a # provenance header: "you can add a .devinignore file to your repo root, with the same syntax as .gitignore" (docs.devin.ai/desktop/context-awareness/windsurf-ignore). Devin Desktop also still respects the legacy .codeiumignore filename and .windsurfignore, but this adapter only writes the current .devinignore path; override via outputs.windsurf.ignore-file to write one of the legacy names instead.

• MCP: merges into .devin/mcp_config.json under a root mcpServers map. This is the file Devin Local reads for project scope, not Cascade: Devin Desktop v3.9.19 removed Cascade, leaving Devin Local as the only agent (docs.devin.ai/desktop/changelog.md, target-audit 2026-09-09, #707). Cascade's own MCP page confirms this: "The MCP configuration on this page applies to the legacy Cascade agent only. The Devin Local agent ... configures MCP servers in the Devin CLI config files instead."

  • The schema carries command/args/env for local (stdio) servers, and url/transport (http or sse)/headers/oauthClientId/oauthClientSecret/oauthResource for remote ones. Both accept disabled, which devin mcp enable|disable also toggles on this file (see disabled support by target). The field is spelled transport, not the type key the shared mcpServers-with-type builder writes for claude, cursor, and the rest, so this adapter holds its own schema.
  • The vendor documents that the file moved here in v3000.3 (Local 3.6); mcpServers entries in the older .devin/config.json migrate to this dedicated file automatically on startup, so this path is correct for both. Cascade's own MCP file, ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json, is user-tier and out of reach: agnostic-ai only emits project-tier files, so this is a new surface rather than a restored one.
  • Devin CLI also documents a third scope this adapter does not write: .devin/mcp_config.local.json, saved there "by default" and "gitignored... use these for personal API keys" (docs.devin.ai/cli/extensibility/mcp/configuration), next to the project-committed .devin/mcp_config.json above ("shared with your team via version control"). The vendor's local/committed split exists so a team can share servers while keeping personal secrets out of version control. agnostic-ai's own generated .devin/mcp_config.json is itself added to the managed .gitignore block by default (gitignore.enabled: true), so it is never committed either; the split's purpose does not apply to agnostic-ai's own output (target-audit 2026-08-11, #609).
  • A type: ws spec emits no server and raises a coverage note because Devin documents only http and sse remote transports.

• Hooks: merge into .devin/hooks.v1.json: "Create .devin/hooks.v1.json in your project" (docs.devin.ai/cli/extensibility/hooks/overview, #629). Eight events: PreToolUse, PostToolUse, PermissionRequest, UserPromptSubmit, Stop, PostCompaction, SessionStart, SessionEnd.

  • Unlike Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and Qoder's shared {"hooks": {...}} wrapper, "the hooks object is the entire file (no wrapper key needed)", so this adapter's document renders {"<Event>": [...]} at the top level with no wrapper.
  • Per entry: type ("command" runs a shell command, or "prompt" evaluates an LLM prompt instead; agnostic-ai's generic hook spec has no prompt field, so that shape only reaches the file through a hand-authored type/prompt Meta pair), command, and optional timeout (seconds). matcher is a regex on the event's tool_name, available on PreToolUse, PostToolUse, and PermissionRequest.
  • Devin CLI names its own tools in lowercase snake_case (exec, edit, read, write, apply_patch, grep, glob, webfetch, ...), not Claude's PascalCase. A matcher carried over from a Claude spec parses as a valid regex and then matches nothing. That case surfaces a coverage note rather than a guessed rename, the same treatment OpenHands and Antigravity give their own mismatched vocabularies.

outputs.windsurf.workflows-dir no longer emits anything. It used to write each agent as a Workflow, invokable in Cascade as /<name>, but Devin Desktop v3.9.19 ("September 8, 2026") removed Cascade, the only agent that ever read one: "Cascade has been removed. Devin Local is now the only agent available in Devin Desktop" (docs.devin.ai/desktop/changelog.md).

Devin Local does not pick the surface back up: "Workflows are not available with the Devin Local agent. Migrate your workflows to skills with the Devin: Open Cascade Migration Wizard command" (docs.devin.ai/desktop/devin-local, Limitations; target-audit 2026-09-09, #707). Setting the key now only prints a warning naming that migration path; the native .devin/agents/<name>.md emission happens either way, unaffected.

Config keys

Import

agnostic-ai import windsurf reads rules from .devin/rules/, falling back to legacy .windsurf/rules/, and reclassifies each file by filename prefix.

Skills import from .agents/skills/, .devin/skills/, then .windsurf/skills/. The first same-name skill wins. Bundled assets and executable modes survive, and native triggers move under x-windsurf as described under Skills.

Verify

1. Install Devin Desktop from devin.ai (formerly windsurf.com).
2. Check the tree: ls .devin/rules/ .devin/agents/ .agents/skills/, grep "Generated by agnostic-ai" .devin/rules/*.md for the provenance header, test -f .agents/skills/*/SKILL.md, python -m json.tool .devin/mcp_config.json > /dev/null when MCP specs exist, python -m json.tool .devin/hooks.v1.json > /dev/null when hook specs exist.
3. Open the project. Devin Local loads every .devin/rules/*.md; each appears in the Rules panel with no "failed to parse" warnings (docs.devin.ai/cli/extensibility/rules still documents this discovery path; only the agent that reads it changed with Cascade's removal, #707). Each .agents/skills/<name>/ loads as a skill. With a scoped rule, <scope>/.devin/rules/<name>.md appears in the same panel, and a rule with trigger: frontmatter shows that activation mode rather than Always On. Ask Devin CLI to use a subagent by name (review this using the <name> subagent); each .devin/agents/<name>.md profile appears alongside the built-in subagent_explore and subagent_general, with no "profile skipped" warning.
4. outputs.windsurf.workflows-dir has nothing left to verify: no shipping Devin Desktop agent reads a Workflow file, so setting the key only prints a sync-time warning now (#707).
5. When ignore specs exist, cat .devinignore shows the concatenated patterns and indexing skips them.
6. Devin Local is the only agent in Devin Desktop (Cascade was removed in v3.9.19, #707); confirm each mcpServers.<name> from .devin/mcp_config.json connects, with a disabled spec showing as disabled.
7. Run /hooks in Devin CLI to confirm each entry in .devin/hooks.v1.json loads, with the file listed as its source.