Yan: Local agents should defer decisions; cloud agents must test autonomously
Walden Yan · Devin’s 80% Moment: Background Agents, 7x PRs, & End of Hand-Held Coding — Walden Yan & Cole Murray · May 28, 2026 · at 1:01:16
Cognition CPO Walden Yan discusses the behavioral differences between local IDE agents and autonomous cloud background agents like Devin.
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“So the funny thing here is that the behavior between local agents and cloud agents, I think that is actually a bit different in their ideal state. I think local agents, you want them to be a bit more fast and let the user make the call on things. Actually don't try to autonomously go test things. The background agent mode where you go start it off, I think the agent should just assume the next message I send a user should just have everything that the user needs for me. And, you know, not run and stop, keep running and don't stop until you have the testing.”
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