This week, Windsurf Wave 13 was released for the popular AI code editor. The update introduces significant upgrades to multi-agent workflows, performance accessibility, and terminal reliability.
The key new feature is the introduction of the SWE-1.5 model, which is now the default for all users. It offers full intelligence and SWE-Bench-Pro performance at standard speeds. This model will be free for the next three months. Additionally, this update brings the context window indicator which lets you monitor context usage and anticipate limits, complementing Cascade’s automatic summarization features. SWE-1.5 has been available for a few weeks under the codename Penguin Alpha.
Aside from a new big model, Wave 13 brings support for Git worktrees to Cascade. This allows you to run multiple sessions on different branches within the same repository without file conflicts. The update also allows you to view and interact with multiple Cascade sessions side-by-side in separate panes or tabs within a single window. You can now also set Cascade Hooks at specific points during the agent’s lifecycle such as after every message.
Wave 13 also introduces a new Cascade terminal in beta. It uses an interactive zsh environment for better reliability and supports .zshrc variables and interactive prompts, resolving issues with complex shell configurations. Right now, this terminal is an opt-in for users on macOS. Another big terminal improvement in this update is that the original colors and styling within Cascade are preserved.
The new update also brings some improvements for enterprise. One of these changes is system-level rules and workflows that enterprises can now deploy via MDM policies. There are also enhanced diff zone behaviours with new configurable scroll settings, and there are multiple stability improvements to the Model Context Protocol (MCP) implementation.
To get the latest update, you can download Windsurf from the company’s download page. If you already have it installed, you should be able to update within the app.