Agent Client Protocol — Introduction
Landing page of the **official specification** of the **Agent Client Protocol (ACP)** (`agentclientprotocol.com/get-started/introduction`), accessed on **August 2, 2026**. This is not a dated article but a **living artifact**: the fiche is dated by its observation, not by a publication date. **One-sentence mission statement**: *« The Agent Client Protocol (ACP) standardizes communication between code editors/IDEs and coding agents and is suitable for both local and remote scenarios. »* **The stated problem** fits in three lines: coding agents and editors are **tightly coupled** and *« interoperability isn't the default »* — every editor must build a custom integration per agent, every agent must implement editor-specific APIs. Three named consequences: **integration overhead** (every agent-editor pair requires custom work), **limited compatibility** (an agent reaches only a subset of editors), **developer lock-in** (*« choosing an agent often means accepting their available interfaces »*). **The solution is explicitly modeled on LSP** — *« similar to how the Language Server Protocol (LSP) standardized language server integration »* — with the mutual benefit: an agent that speaks ACP works with **any** compatible editor, an editor that supports ACP gains access to the **entire** ACP agent ecosystem. **Two deployment modes, and this is the most underrated point**: **local** agents run as a subprocess of the editor over **JSON-RPC on stdio**, but **remote** agents are planned over **HTTP or WebSocket** — support declared *« work in progress »*, with ongoing collaboration with agentic platforms. **Technical lineage with MCP, stronger than mere complementarity**: ACP *« re-uses the JSON representations used in MCP where possible »*, adding types specific to agentic coding UX needs (**diff** display is the example given); the default format for readable text is **Markdown**, chosen so the editor is not required to render HTML. **Two governance and versioning observations** drawn from the page itself, not from surrounding discourse: the navigation exposes **v1 (Latest)** and **v2 (Draft)** — and **not an "ACP 1.2"** —, and the navigation bar links **Zed Industries *and* JetBrains** side by side, alongside an **ACP Registry**, **RFDs**, a **Community** section, **Publications**, **Updates**, and a **Brand** page. Official libraries announced: **Kotlin, Java, Python, Rust, TypeScript**, plus a community track.
**Projet Agent Client Protocol** — spécification collective · sans signature individuelle sur cette page. La barre de navigation du site lie deux organisations au même niveau : **Zed Industries** (à l'origine du protocole) et **JetBrains**. La présence d'une section **RFDs** (*requests for discussion*) · d'une page **Community** et d'un **ACP Registry** indique une structure de gouvernance ouverte plutôt qu'une documentation produit.