What is it?
Devin is Cognition’s AI software engineer designed to work as a junior dev that can autonomously complete well-defined tasks. Using Devin is simple: give it a task first thing in the morning and let it run while you’re doing other work, then check its progress a few hours later. Unlike coding agents that require constant interaction, Devin operates independently. It’s ideal for devs who want to delegate mundane, routine tasks and focus on higher-level work.
Instructing Devin via its conversational interface. Source: Devin docs
What can I use it for?
In our testing, Devin was most effective on focused, well-scoped tasks that don’t require complex cross-component integration. We were extra impressed seeing its frontend work and routine improvements.
- Small component changes: Devin understands and delivers modifications for a single component
- Bug fixes: Point Devin to minor bugs and edge cases, and it will understand + solve
- Frontend code: Strong performance in complex state management and UI updates
- Refactoring/performance: Ask Devin to scope out coding improvements/optimizations
- API fixes: Use Devin to handle data return edge cases and similar backend tweaks
- Config tasks: Setting defaults, schedules, and other routine setup work
What we like about it
What impressed us most about Devin is its ability to handle small, focused tasks that typically take about an hour of human work. It completed them with remarkable efficiency. Give Devin guidance when walking through your codebase, and it comprehends it pretty well going forward. Devin is especially skilled at complex frontend tasks.
We think Devin is a valuable asset for teams with heavy UI work. Its autonomous UX format means you can assign it a few tasks and check back later, instead of watching it work/steering it. It’s most effective when given narrow + straightforward coding tasks.
Overall, it’s a huge time-saver and a good AI teammate. It’s a great answer to the toil that so many software teams have to deal with.
Devin creating a plan and showing what file changes it'll make. Source: Devin docs
