Devin, the first AI software engineer
Devin AI is an autonomous AI agent designed to aid in coding tasks, but its performance can vary depending on task complexity. This post explores its advantages, limitations, and the testing process, providing insight into its strengths and weaknesses in real-world scenarios.
Devin AI is an autonomous AI coding agent that works in its own environment. This environment is a virtual machine that has:
- Browser interface – it uses it to test UI locally or check out tools documentation
- Its VSCode instance
- A terminal – uses it to run all their commands
- A planner – where the main instructions are internally defined and executed
It also has integrations with Slack and GitHub for a more complete workflow.
Note: The Slack integration was not tested, and only the chat interface provided on the devin.ai site was used.
The difference with other tools like Cursor or Copilot is that it is not an IDE nor a VSCode extension and does not act like one. Devin does provide a VSCode extension, but it is just a chat interface, and no code is interacted with in the user’s local environment. The changes in the code would still happen on Devin’s machine.