Add Agent Client Protocol (ACP) support for Zed and JetBrains integration

[chindris-mihai-alexandru]

Feature Request: Add Agent Client Protocol (ACP) support

Summary

AdaL CLI should implement the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) to enable native integration with ACP-compatible editors like Zed and JetBrains IDEs.

Motivation

ACP is an open standard (Apache-2.0) created by Zed and JetBrains that lets any editor connect to any AI coding agent via JSON-RPC over stdio. It's the "LSP moment" for AI agents — implement once, work everywhere.

The ACP registry already includes 30+ agents: Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, OpenCode, Goose, Cursor, Cline, Kilo, Junie (JetBrains), Mistral Vibe, GitHub Copilot CLI, and many more. AdaL CLI is notably absent.

Without ACP support, AdaL users are limited to terminal-only usage and cannot leverage Zed's multi-file editing interface, inline diffs, or the broader IDE experience when using AdaL's unique capabilities (auto-prompting, multi-model switching, long-horizon autonomy).

What's needed

1. ACP mode: adal --acp flag that starts AdaL as an ACP subprocess communicating via JSON-RPC over stdio (instead of the interactive terminal UI)
2. ACP handshake: Implement the initialize request/response per the ACP spec
3. Authentication: Support authMethods in the initialize response (required by the ACP registry)
4. Tool mapping: Map ACP tool requests (write_text_file, read_text_file, create_terminal) to AdaL's internal capabilities

Distribution via ACP Registry

Once ACP is implemented, AdaL can be registered in the ACP Registry with an npx distribution:

{
  "id": "adal-cli",
  "name": "AdaL CLI",
  "version": "1.0.6",
  "description": "Self-evolving coding agent with auto-prompting, multi-model switching, and long-horizon autonomy",
  "repository": "https://github.com/SylphAI-Inc/adal-cli",
  "website": "https://docs.sylph.ai",
  "authors": ["SylphAI"],
  "license": "proprietary",
  "distribution": {
    "npx": {
      "package": "@sylphai/adal-cli@1.0.6",
      "args": ["--acp"]
    }
  }
}

This would make AdaL instantly available in Zed, JetBrains, and any future ACP-compatible editor.

References

• ACP specification
• ACP Registry contributing guide
• Zed ACP announcement
• JetBrains ACP partnership
• ACP Registry (30+ agents)

Impact

AdaL's core differentiators — auto-prompting optimization, sustained long-horizon autonomy, and mid-session multi-model switching — would become accessible to the entire Zed and JetBrains user base. This is a significant distribution opportunity with relatively low implementation cost (ACP is JSON-RPC over stdio, and reference implementations exist from Gemini CLI and OpenCode).