Devin adds cloud handoffs and VM access to its CLI

Cognition has released Devin Cloud in Terminal and devin ssh, connecting the Devin coding agent’s local CLI, hosted sessions, and remote development VMs. Developers can create, steer, monitor, and resume cloud jobs from a shell, transfer work between local and hosted environments, and inspect the machine running the agent. Cognition outlines the features in its release post.

Devin Cloud assigns each agent session a hosted development environment that can continue running after a laptop disconnects. SSH access makes that environment available as a remote development box, including its source tree, processes, files, and forwarded ports.

Cloud control moves into the shell

The new commands cover the main session lifecycle without requiring the web dashboard:

Handoffs move work in both directions

Running /handoff during local development transfers the task to Devin and provisions a cloud VM where the agent can continue working. Running the same command inside a cloud session pulls the branch to the local machine, changes the active Git checkout, and starts a local session on that code.

1. Prototype locally with the Devin CLI and a selected model.
2. Send test writing, refactoring, or CI repairs to a cloud session with /handoff.
3. Monitor and steer the hosted task from the terminal while it continues remotely.
4. Run /handoff again to retrieve the branch for local review and final edits.

Because the return handoff changes the active checkout, teams should test how the workflow handles dirty working trees, branch conflicts, submodules, Git LFS objects, and generated files before adopting it for shared repositories.

The VM opens up over SSH

Running devin ssh provides shell access to the environment where Devin is coding and running commands. That access supports direct inspection when a transcript or test summary does not provide enough detail.

Developers can use the connection to:

• Inspect and edit source code on the VM, including through Devin Desktop.
• Run development servers and forward ports for browser testing.
• Review processes, logs, installed dependencies, and test artifacts.
• Transfer files between the VM and a local machine with scp.

Port forwarding allows a developer to load the application running inside the VM and verify the interface against the same checkout and services Devin used. Direct file and process access also makes environment-specific failures easier to reproduce.

Sessions survive terminal disconnects

Cloud sessions persist across the CLI, web app, and Devin Desktop. A developer can open a terminal session in either graphical client, close the local terminal, and later resume the same job from its session URL.

Cognition says Devin Cloud provisions a dedicated VM for each session, with macOS, Linux, or Windows available as build and test targets. The hosted environment separates remote dependencies and compute from the developer’s laptop, although teams still need to confirm that toolchains, environment variables, secrets, and operating-system assumptions match their production workflow.

Installation and promotional access

Cognition is offering free sessions with SWE-2, its in-house coding model, through October 8. Current quotas, eligibility, and post-promotion pricing should be checked before relying on the offer for ongoing work.

Install the CLI with:

curl -fsSL https://cli.devin.ai/install.sh | bash

Then start a cloud session:

devin --cloud

The complete command reference is available in the cloud CLI docs.

The boundary becomes a command

Coding-agent workflows span local interactive editing, remote execution, and autonomous pull-request production. Devin’s handoff commands connect those stages while preserving the terminal as the control surface. A developer can begin with local context, move a long-running task to hosted compute, inspect the remote environment over SSH, and retrieve the resulting branch without starting a separate workflow.

A technical pilot should verify the operational details that determine whether those transitions remain reliable: