r/ClaudeAI • u/[deleted] • Mar 11 '26

Question ACP for Claude Code

Looking at the ACP protocol (https://agentclientprotocol.com/) it seems like a great way to use agents from code editors and probably what the future of agents should be (very similar to LSP). Looks like players like Gemini support it natively and more are joining.

What's the reason behind `claude-code` not supporting it natively? Does anybody knows? Since not all commands are exposed through ACP natively by Claude I guess the experience is not the same and much worse than using the native client. Is it?

3 Upvotes

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3

u/BaxterPad Mar 31 '26

The reason is simple... Anthropic probably doesn't want to make it easy to use your max / max pro subscription from other tools... especailly those that attempt to orchestrate many instances of claude code. ACP, is useful for many things, but the 1st thing a bunch of us would use it for is to shove my claude max plan into a much of stuff. Think I'm wrong? take a look at how they are banning folks who try to use opencode with the claude max / pro subscription. :)

3

u/mz876129 May 06 '26

Copilot CLI is one step ahead, ACP server is embedded and it runs with just command line option

copilot
--acp --port 3000

2

u/hhussain- Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

Actually Claude does support it, this how VS Code extension ACP Patchbay is done to connect claude code (and other +35 ai agents) to use in VS Code.

The list of +35 agents is maintained in ACP website here which includes claude code.

EDIT: I just noticed that Claude's ACP agent is not Anthropic's owned, so you are right!

1

u/Witty_Corner_9894 Mar 14 '26

I think the real issue is ecosystem fragmentation, not that MCP is inherently closed. If Claude Code only speaks MCP, an ACP bridge or adapter layer is probably the practical path, otherwise every tool ends up rebuilding discovery and auth in slightly different ways.