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Before you start your first session, make sure you’ve indexed and set up your repositories. These are the foundational steps that help Devin understand and work with your codebase.
Now that you’re all set up, kick off your first Devin session! This guide will walk you through the new session interface and help you understand the best ways to interact with Devin.

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Understanding the Devin Session Page

When you start a new session, you’ll see two primary modes: Ask and Agent.
Unless you already have a fully scoped plan, we recommend starting with Ask to work with Devin on constructing a plan, then moving to Agent mode to execute it.

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Ask Mode

Ask Devin is a lightweight mode for exploring your codebase and planning tasks with Devin, without making changes to the actual code. Use Ask mode to:
  • Ask questions about how your code works
  • Explore architecture and dependencies
  • Plan and scope tasks before implementation
  • Generate context-rich prompts for Agent sessions
Ask Mode

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Triggering Ask Mode

You can trigger Ask mode from the main page or from a DeepWiki page. For Ask mode from the main page, toggle to Ask mode and select the repository/repositories you want to ask about.
Ask Mode from Main Page
For Ask mode from a DeepWiki page, type a query in the chat input at the bottom of the page and click Ask. This will automatically scope Devin’s knowledge to that repository specifically.
Ask Mode from DeepWiki
Learn more in our Ask Devin guide. Once you’ve worked with Devin to understand the problem and create a plan, you’re ready to move to Agent mode.

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Agent Mode

Agent mode is Devin’s full autonomous mode where it can write code, run commands, browse the web, and complete complex tasks end-to-end. Use Agent mode when you’re ready to:
  • Implement features or fix bugs
  • Create pull requests
  • Run tests and debug issues
  • Perform multi-step tasks that require code changes

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Triggering Agent Mode

You can trigger Agent mode from the main page or from an Ask Devin session. For tasks that are not fully scoped, we recommend:
  • Start with Ask mode to plan out the task
  • Construct a Devin Prompt, which will draw from your Ask session to create a scoped plan
  • Click Send to Devin to move to Agent mode and execute the task
This flow is shown below:
Ask Mode to Agent Mode
For Agent mode from the main page, toggle to Agent mode and select the repository/repositories you want to work with.
Agent Mode
When starting an Agent session, you’ll configure a few options: selecting a Repository and selecting an Agent.

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Selecting a Repository

Select the repository you want Devin to work with. Click the repository selector to see all repositories that have been added to Devin’s machine.
Repository Selector
Selecting a repository ensures Devin:
  • Has access to your codebase and can make changes
  • Uses the correct branch as a starting point
  • Can create pull requests to the right repository

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Selecting an Agent

You can choose which agent configuration Devin uses for your session. Different agents may have different capabilities or be optimized for specific types of tasks. Currently, we have a default agent that works well for most tasks, and a data analyst agent named Dana that is optimized for data analysis tasks.
Agent Selector
If you’re unsure which agent to use, the default agent works well for most tasks.

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Using @ Mentions

Use @ mentions to give Devin specific context about files, repositories, or other resources. When you type @ in the chat input, you’ll see a dropdown of available mentions:
  • @Repos - Reference a specific repository
  • @Files - Reference a specific file in your codebase
  • @Macros - Reference a macro for a Knowledge entry
  • @Playbooks - Reference a team or community playbook, which are detailed prompt templates that can be used to guide Devin’s behavior.
  • @Secrets - Reference a specific secret (e.g. API keys, credentials, etc.) from Devin’s session manager
At Mentions
@ mentions help Devin understand exactly what you’re working with and reduce ambiguity in your prompts.

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Scoping Your First Session

Start with tasks that have clear success criteria and provide Devin with the context it needs — just as you would when handing off work to a teammate. As you get comfortable, try progressively more complex tasks. We’ve seen users work with Devin on everything from fixing small bugs to targeted refactors to large-scale migrations and building entire features from scratch.
As a rule of thumb: if a task would take you three hours or less, Devin can most likely do it. For larger projects, break them into focused sessions and run them in parallel with batch sessions.

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First-time Prompt Ideas

If you’d like to dig in to some more detailed examples of what Devin can do (and how), check out our use cases.

Browse Use Cases

Explore practical examples across engineering workflows — each includes prompts you can try immediately.

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After Your Session

Once Devin finishes, check out Session Insights — you’ll get a timeline of what happened, actionable feedback, and an improved prompt you can use for similar tasks in the future.

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Next Steps

Once you’re comfortable with basic sessions, explore these resources to get more out of Devin:

Integrations

Connect Devin to your existing tools like GitHub, Slack, Jira, and more.

Playbooks

Learn how to use Playbooks to implement tasks.

Knowledge

Add knowledge to help Devin understand your team’s practices.