Amazon Q Developer vs Devin

Amazon Q Developer vs DevinComparisonUpdated 2026-03-16

SUMMARY

Amazon Q Developer (CLI) uses markdown configuration while Devin (Agent) uses markdown. They differ on 4 of 11 compared features. Both tools provide AI-assisted development but take different approaches to project configuration.

FEATURE COMPARISON

Feature	Amazon Q Developer	Devin	Notes
Config format	markdown	markdown
Hierarchy support	✗	✓	Whether config files can be placed at multiple directory levels
Global config	✓	✗	User-wide configuration outside any project
Project config	✓	✓
Subdirectory scoping	✗	✓	Config files in subdirectories that apply only to that subtree
File inclusion / imports	✗	✗	Ability to include or reference other files from config
Ignore file	✗	✗
IDE integration	CLI	Agent
Schema / structure	Free-form (Markdown)	Free-form (Markdown)	Whether config uses structured schema or free-form content
Git committed	✓	✓	Whether primary config files are intended to be version-controlled
Encoding	UTF-8	UTF-8

FILE MAPPING

Purpose	Amazon Q Developer	Devin
Settings / configuration	.amazonq/mcp.json	.devin/wiki.json

SIDE-BY-SIDE CODE SAMPLES

Amazon Q Developer

.amazonq/rules/*.md

markdown

# React Component Standards

## Purpose
Ensure consistent React component patterns across the frontend codebase.

## Priority
High

## Instructions
- Use functional components with TypeScript
- Define props interfaces above the component
- Use React.FC only when children are expected
- Colocate styles using CSS Modules (*.module.css)
- Extract hooks into separate files when reused
- Memoize expensive computations with useMemo
- Use React.lazy for route-level code splitting

Devin

AGENTS.md

markdown

# Agent Instructions

## Setup
- Python 3.12 with uv package manager
- PostgreSQL 16 and Redis 7
- Run: uv sync && uv run alembic upgrade head

## Commands
- Dev server: uv run uvicorn app.main:app --reload
- Tests: uv run pytest -x --tb=short
- Lint: uv run ruff check . && uv run mypy .
- Format: uv run ruff format .

## Code Style
- FastAPI with async endpoints
- Pydantic v2 for all schemas
- SQLAlchemy 2.0 async sessions
- Repository pattern for data access

## PR Guidelines
- Keep PRs focused on a single issue
- Add tests for new functionality
- Run the full test suite before submitting

KEY DIFFERENCES

1. Hierarchy support

Amazon Q Developer: Not supported. Devin: Supported.

2. Global config

Amazon Q Developer: Supported. Devin: Not supported.

3. Subdirectory scoping

Amazon Q Developer: Not supported. Devin: Supported.

4. IDE integration

Amazon Q Developer: CLI. Devin: Agent.

WHICH SHOULD I USE?

Recommendation

Choose based on your IDE/CLI preference. If you use Amazon Q Developer, configure .amazonq/rules/*.md. If you use Devin, configure AGENTS.md. Many projects include config files for multiple tools so each team member can use their preferred editor.

PORTABILITY TIP

sync-instructions.sh

bash

# Maintain a single source of truth:
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md CLAUDE.md
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md .cursorrules
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md AGENTS.md