Command in the terminal
Use our Command modality in the terminal (Cmd/Ctrl+I) to generate the proper CLI syntax from prompts in natural language.
Send terminal selection to the agent
Highlight a portion of the stack trace and pressCmd/Ctrl+L to send it to the agent panel, where you can reference this selection in your next prompt.
@-mention your terminal
Chat with the agent about your active terminals.Auto-executed agent commands
The agent can run terminal commands on its own. Your permission rules and the session mode decide which commands run without asking and which prompt you first.Command permissions
Each command the agent wants to run is checked against your permission rules:
A command that no rule covers follows the session mode. Code asks before running it, Smart lets a fast model auto-approve commands it judges safe, and Bypass Permissions runs it unless your organization’s policy requires approval.
Configure your own rules in Devin Local settings under Allow, Deny, and Ask. Rules use the Devin CLI permission syntax, for example
Exec(git status) or Exec(npm run). See permissions for the full syntax, including path and URL scopes.
Approving from the command card
When the agent asks for approval, the command card lets you run the command once, allow it for the rest of the session, or allow it permanently, which adds a rule to your settings. You can also edit the command before approving it. See responding to permission requests.Team-wide rules (Teams & Enterprise)
Administrators can set allow, ask, and deny rules for every member, enforce sandbox mode, and limit which modes members can select. Organization deny and ask rules take priority over a member’s own rules and over Bypass Permissions. Devin Enterprise admins configure them in the Devin dashboard under Settings → Enterprise → Devin Desktop; Windsurf Enterprise admins use the Devin CLI settings page. See terminal permissions for the rule format.Dedicated terminal
Devin Desktop provides a dedicated terminal for the agent to use for running commands on macOS and Linux. This dedicated terminal is separate from your default terminal and uses a fixed shell for each platform:zsh on macOS and bash on Linux.
.zshrc on macOS or .bashrc on Linux).
If your default terminal uses a different shell, and you want Devin Desktop to use shared environment variables, we recommend creating a shared configuration file that both shells can source.