Ways to use Cosine
Cosine is available across four main surfaces: CLI, Cloud, VS Code, and Desktop.
They are not separate products with separate workflows. They are different ways to work with the same underlying Cosine system, depending on where you want to start, what kind of task you are doing, and how closely you want Cosine tied to your local environment.
How the surfaces work together
Section titled “How the surfaces work together”- Cloud is the shared workspace for projects, tasks, reviews, and integrations, and the infrastructure layer that powers work across the rest of Cosine.
- CLI gives you a terminal-first way to use Cosine directly in your local development environment.
- VS Code brings Cosine into the editor for people who want to stay close to open files, selections, and inline diffs.
- Desktop gives you a native app workspace that combines a visual task experience with direct access to your local machine.
In practice, many teams use more than one surface:
- start from Cloud to connect repositories and manage work at the project level
- use the CLI for local implementation, debugging, and tool-heavy workflows
- use VS Code when you want Cosine inside the editor while you code
- use Desktop when you want a visual workspace on your machine with access to local files and local workflows
When to use each surface
Section titled “When to use each surface”| Surface | Best for | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud | Shared workspace and platform infrastructure | You want to connect code, start and track tasks, review work, manage integrations, and rely on the browser-based workspace that underpins the wider Cosine experience |
| CLI | Terminal-first local development | You want Cosine working in your real environment with local files, builds, tests, Git, and MCP-connected tools |
| VS Code | In-editor workflows | You want to stay inside VS Code and work with editor context, selections, and inline diffs |
| Desktop | Native local workspace | You want a visual Cosine workspace on your machine with direct access to linked local projects and desktop-native workflows |