When you start a session, Devin will interpret your prompt and rapidly search your codebase to find relevant files and code snippets. Using this context, Devin will propose a detailed plan that you can adjust. This detailed plan helps Devin work on the right parts of your codebase and ensures that Devin’s understanding of the task is aligned with what you want.

We always recommend reviewing Devin’s plan to increase the likelihood that Devin will complete the task without additional guidance needed. However, Interactive Planning is particularly helpful in these cases:

  • For complex tasks requiring extensive context or in-depth scoping
  • When you are working with unfamiliar parts of your codebase
  • When you want to check Devin’s understanding before it begins coding

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How Interactive Planning Works

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1. Initial Assessment

When you start a new session, Devin quickly analyzes your codebase and provides:

  • Relevant files it intends to modify
  • Key findings from its initial analysis
  • Important implementation questions that you should answer
To make searching your codebase fast, Devin indexes the main branch of your repositories once every three hours. Devin searches the latest index during Interactive Planning. While the results will still be useful overall, Devin may not see recent changes to your repository, including changes made on other branches. Also, if Devin decides that none of the search results are relevant to your prompt, it will ignore them when making its plan. You can also directly message Devin to ignore search results.

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2. Review and Validate

After its initial fast assessment, Devin will start working on a more detailed plan. Devin’s plan will include code citations that you can inspect before approving. Click on these citations to deep-link directly into the Devin IDE, allowing you to verify that Devin has identified the correct code to work on.

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Waiting for Approval

By default, Devin will wait thirty seconds for feedback from you before automatically proceeding with its plan. You can adjust this behavior in Settings > Customization.

For complex tasks, click “Wait for my approval” to ensure Devin waits for your feedback on its complete plan. This gives you the opportunity to:

  • Brainstorm alternatives with Devin
  • Explore the codebase together using VSCode
  • Suggest modifications to the proposed approach
  • Add details Devin might have missed