The outcome

Use the platform productively without giving it unnecessary access or authority.

Windsurf is a agentic AI code editor. Understanding codebases, planning and implementing repository changes with Cascade, and preserving team conventions through project rules. This guide narrows that broad capability into one repeatable outcome, with checkpoints that keep the source material and your judgment in the loop.

Before you begin

Set the boundary before the tool starts.

Choose one real task, identify who will use the result, and decide what evidence or test will make the result acceptable. Gather only the source material needed for that task. If the work contains confidential, personal, regulated, or client-owned information, confirm that the platform and account are approved before sharing it.

Troiana principle

AI should make the work easier to inspect. If the workflow removes the source, the owner, or the review step, redesign the workflow.

Step by step

A workflow you can repeat.

  1. 01

    Classify the task and its data before uploading or connecting anything.

  2. 02

    Review the current product, account, organization, retention, and training settings that apply to you.

  3. 03

    Grant the narrowest file, repository, workspace, microphone, screen, or integration permissions needed.

  4. 04

    Remove secrets and personal or regulated information unless your approved policy explicitly permits it.

  5. 05

    Review the output and revoke permissions or disconnect sources that are no longer needed.

Working standard

What good use looks like.

  • Agentic editing and terminal access can change many files quickly. Keep permissions narrow, use checkpoints and version control, inspect diffs, and never place credentials in prompts or Rules.
  • Follow your organization’s approved-use policy.
  • Never treat fluent output as authorization to act.

Agentic editing and terminal access can change many files quickly. Keep permissions narrow, use checkpoints and version control, inspect diffs, and never place credentials in prompts or Rules.

Official references

Check the current product documentation.

Features, plan limits, availability, and data controls change. These official pages are the starting points used for this collection.