Add support in vscode for Agent Client Protocol (ACP)

[gayanper]

This is a new protocol developed by the ZedEditor (https://github.com/zed-industries/zed) team for integrating 3rd party Agent CLIs. Adding support in VSCode for this protocol will allow the AI workflows to be kept stream line regardless which Agent implementation is used inside VSCode.

Today each Agent provider like Gemini CLI, Codex provide their own extension which kinds of open up to differences in each AI workflow implementation, like functionality and aesthetic wise a well.

Specification

https://agentclientprotocol.com/overview/introduction

https://github.com/zed-industries/agent-client-protocol

[roblourens]

This is interesting, but I don't plan to implement it right away. We are still early in this cycle and right now I'm focused on a tight integration with Claude Code (https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-copilot-chat/blob/main/src/extension/agents/claude/node/claudeCodeAgent.ts) and I don't think that everything that their SDK offers is available via ACP. I'll keep an eye on it and when we get to support for Gemini CLI then we will end up with some level of support for it by default anyway.

[ManiaciaChao]

Definitely it will be a nice feature to have.

Zed now has their own builtin Claude Code integration https://zed.dev/blog/claude-code-via-acp.
Anyway, as they mentioned, "many built-in slash commands are not yet supported by the SDK".
Looks like the Zed folks think this depends on Claude Code — anthropics/claude-code#6686 .

[albertosantini]

Just if this announce may change the priority.
https://zed.dev/blog/jetbrains-on-acp

[iamthebot]

Also worth noting that the main neovim agentic plugins (codecompanion and avante) have also standardized on ACP.

ACP support is also key for those of us that create/support agentic developer tools since it means writing once to support multiple editors/IDE.

[dherman]

The power of a standard like ACP in this space is that even when investing significant resources in deep integration for market leaders like Claude Code, it still allows the smaller players to participate, which enables competition and innovation. Even if it's not yet being actively developed, I'm glad to hear that ACP is on the VS Code team's radar!

[scotteveritt]

+1 for this effort.

[nikomatsakis]

I second the importance of ACP here. I think it's got the potential to be a very big deal, in fact -- in addition to allowing for interoperability and competition, it also can permit open source projects to extend and modify agents in all kinds of interesting ways (I blogged a bit about this here).

@roblourens, I am wondering if there is any way to accelerate this change (e.g., by contributing a PR). Or would that just be distracting?

[kajogo777]

This will allow other Agent providers to run within VSCode not just Claude Code.

Happy to help with this if you need a hand, we're collaborating with the Zed team on ACP as another agent provider.