openclaw/docs/tools/acp-agents-setup.md

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summary	read_when	title
Setting up ACP agents: acpx harness config, plugin setup, permissions	Installing or configuring the acpx harness for Claude Code / Codex / Gemini CLI Enabling the plugin-tools or OpenClaw-tools MCP bridge Configuring ACP permission modes	ACP agents — setup

For the overview, operator runbook, and concepts, see ACP agents.

The sections below cover acpx harness config, plugin setup for the MCP bridges, and permission configuration.

Use this page only when you are setting up the ACP/acpx route. For native Codex app-server runtime config, use Codex harness. For OpenAI API keys or Codex OAuth model-provider config, use OpenAI.

Codex has two OpenClaw routes:

Route	Config/command	Setup page
Native Codex app-server	/codex ..., agentRuntime.id: "codex"	Codex harness
Explicit Codex ACP adapter	/acp spawn codex, runtime: "acp", agentId: "codex"	This page

Prefer the native route unless you explicitly need ACP/acpx behavior.

acpx harness support (current)

Current acpx built-in harness aliases:

• claude
• codex
• copilot
• cursor (Cursor CLI: cursor-agent acp)
• droid
• gemini
• iflow
• kilocode
• kimi
• kiro
• openclaw
• opencode
• pi
• qwen

When OpenClaw uses the acpx backend, prefer these values for agentId unless your acpx config defines custom agent aliases. If your local Cursor install still exposes ACP as agent acp, override the cursor agent command in your acpx config instead of changing the built-in default.

Direct acpx CLI usage can also target arbitrary adapters via --agent <command>, but that raw escape hatch is an acpx CLI feature (not the normal OpenClaw agentId path).

Model control is adapter-capability dependent. Codex ACP model refs are normalized by OpenClaw before startup. Other harnesses need ACP models plus session/set_model support; if a harness exposes neither that ACP capability nor its own startup model flag, OpenClaw/acpx cannot force a model selection.

Required config

Core ACP baseline:

{
  acp: {
    enabled: true,
    // Optional. Default is true; set false to pause ACP dispatch while keeping /acp controls.
    dispatch: { enabled: true },
    backend: "acpx",
    defaultAgent: "codex",
    allowedAgents: [
      "claude",
      "codex",
      "copilot",
      "cursor",
      "droid",
      "gemini",
      "iflow",
      "kilocode",
      "kimi",
      "kiro",
      "openclaw",
      "opencode",
      "pi",
      "qwen",
    ],
    maxConcurrentSessions: 8,
    stream: {
      coalesceIdleMs: 300,
      maxChunkChars: 1200,
    },
    runtime: {
      ttlMinutes: 120,
    },
  },
}

Thread binding config is channel-adapter specific. Example for Discord:

{
  session: {
    threadBindings: {
      enabled: true,
      idleHours: 24,
      maxAgeHours: 0,
    },
  },
  channels: {
    discord: {
      threadBindings: {
        enabled: true,
        spawnAcpSessions: true,
      },
    },
  },
}

If thread-bound ACP spawn does not work, verify the adapter feature flag first:

• Discord: channels.discord.threadBindings.spawnAcpSessions=true

Current-conversation binds do not require child-thread creation. They require an active conversation context and a channel adapter that exposes ACP conversation bindings.

See Configuration Reference.

Plugin setup for acpx backend

Fresh installs ship the bundled acpx runtime plugin enabled by default, so ACP usually works without a manual plugin install step.

Start with:

/acp doctor

If you disabled acpx, denied it via plugins.allow / plugins.deny, or want to switch to a local development checkout, use the explicit plugin path:

openclaw plugins install acpx
openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.enabled true

Local workspace install during development:

openclaw plugins install ./path/to/local/acpx-plugin

Then verify backend health:

/acp doctor

acpx command and version configuration

By default, the bundled acpx plugin registers the embedded ACP backend without spawning an ACP agent during Gateway startup. Run /acp doctor for an explicit live probe. Set OPENCLAW_ACPX_RUNTIME_STARTUP_PROBE=1 only when you need the Gateway to probe the configured agent at startup.

Override the command or version in plugin config:

{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "acpx": {
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "command": "../acpx/dist/cli.js",
          "expectedVersion": "any"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

• command accepts an absolute path, relative path (resolved from the OpenClaw workspace), or command name.
• expectedVersion: "any" disables strict version matching.
• Custom command paths disable plugin-local auto-install.

See Plugins.

Optional Coven backend

OpenClaw can also register a bundled, opt-in coven ACP backend for operators who want ACP coding sessions supervised by a local Coven daemon instead of launched directly through ACPX.

This is intentionally an extension, not a core runtime path:

• the default ACPX backend stays unchanged for normal installs;
• Coven has its own daemon, socket, session store, harness mapping, and project boundary model;
• the bridge can be enabled, disabled, configured, and reviewed independently through the plugin system; and
• OpenClaw remains responsible for ACP session routing, chat bindings, task state, and fallback policy while Coven owns harness supervision.

Minimal opt-in config:

{
  acp: {
    enabled: true,
    backend: "coven",
    defaultAgent: "codex",
  },
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      coven: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          // Optional. Defaults to COVEN_HOME or ~/.coven.
          covenHome: "~/.coven",
          // Optional. Defaults to <covenHome>/coven.sock.
          socketPath: "~/.coven/coven.sock",
          // Optional. Used when Coven is unavailable or launch fails.
          fallbackBackend: "acpx",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

When selected, OpenClaw checks Coven daemon health over the configured Unix socket before launching. A successful launch creates a Coven session and records the Coven session id in the ACP runtime handle. If the health check or launch fails, OpenClaw falls back to the configured direct ACP backend (acpx by default) instead of breaking existing ACP behavior.

For path safety, ~ in covenHome and socketPath expands to the current user home directory. Relative Coven paths resolve from the OpenClaw workspace, not from the process working directory. socketPath must stay inside covenHome; use the default <covenHome>/coven.sock unless your Coven daemon uses a different socket filename in the same home directory. Keep covenHome owned by the OpenClaw user and not group/world-writable; OpenClaw rejects symlinked, shared-writable, or non-socket Coven socket paths before connecting.

The default harness mapping sends common ACP agent ids such as codex, claude, gemini, and opencode to the matching Coven harness id. Override plugins.entries.coven.config.harnesses only when your local Coven install uses custom harness names.

Automatic dependency install

When you install OpenClaw globally with npm install -g openclaw, the acpx runtime dependencies (platform-specific binaries) are installed automatically via a postinstall hook. If the automatic install fails, the gateway still starts normally and reports the missing dependency through openclaw acp doctor.

Plugin tools MCP bridge

By default, ACPX sessions do not expose OpenClaw plugin-registered tools to the ACP harness.

If you want ACP agents such as Codex or Claude Code to call installed OpenClaw plugin tools such as memory recall/store, enable the dedicated bridge:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.pluginToolsMcpBridge true

What this does:

• Injects a built-in MCP server named openclaw-plugin-tools into ACPX session bootstrap.
• Exposes plugin tools already registered by installed and enabled OpenClaw plugins.
• Keeps the feature explicit and default-off.

Security and trust notes:

• This expands the ACP harness tool surface.
• ACP agents get access only to plugin tools already active in the gateway.
• Treat this as the same trust boundary as letting those plugins execute in OpenClaw itself.
• Review installed plugins before enabling it.

Custom mcpServers still work as before. The built-in plugin-tools bridge is an additional opt-in convenience, not a replacement for generic MCP server config.

OpenClaw tools MCP bridge

By default, ACPX sessions also do not expose built-in OpenClaw tools through MCP. Enable the separate core-tools bridge when an ACP agent needs selected built-in tools such as cron:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.openClawToolsMcpBridge true

What this does:

• Injects a built-in MCP server named openclaw-tools into ACPX session bootstrap.
• Exposes selected built-in OpenClaw tools. The initial server exposes cron.
• Keeps core-tool exposure explicit and default-off.

Runtime timeout configuration

The bundled acpx plugin defaults embedded runtime turns to a 120-second timeout. This gives slower harnesses such as Gemini CLI enough time to complete ACP startup and initialization. Override it if your host needs a different runtime limit:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.timeoutSeconds 180

Restart the gateway after changing this value.

Health probe agent configuration

When /acp doctor or the opt-in startup probe checks the backend, the bundled acpx plugin probes one harness agent. If acp.allowedAgents is set, it defaults to the first allowed agent; otherwise it defaults to codex. If your deployment needs a different ACP agent for health checks, set the probe agent explicitly:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.probeAgent claude

Restart the gateway after changing this value.

Permission configuration

ACP sessions run non-interactively — there is no TTY to approve or deny file-write and shell-exec permission prompts. The acpx plugin provides two config keys that control how permissions are handled:

These ACPX harness permissions are separate from OpenClaw exec approvals and separate from CLI-backend vendor bypass flags such as Claude CLI --permission-mode bypassPermissions. ACPX approve-all is the harness-level break-glass switch for ACP sessions.

permissionMode

Controls which operations the harness agent can perform without prompting.

Value	Behavior
approve-all	Auto-approve all file writes and shell commands.
approve-reads	Auto-approve reads only; writes and exec require prompts.
deny-all	Deny all permission prompts.

nonInteractivePermissions

Controls what happens when a permission prompt would be shown but no interactive TTY is available (which is always the case for ACP sessions).

Value	Behavior
fail	Abort the session with AcpRuntimeError. (default)
deny	Silently deny the permission and continue (graceful degradation).

Configuration

Set via plugin config:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.permissionMode approve-all
openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.config.nonInteractivePermissions fail

Restart the gateway after changing these values.

OpenClaw defaults to `permissionMode=approve-reads` and `nonInteractivePermissions=fail`. In non-interactive ACP sessions, any write or exec that triggers a permission prompt can fail with `AcpRuntimeError: Permission prompt unavailable in non-interactive mode`.

If you need to restrict permissions, set nonInteractivePermissions to deny so sessions degrade gracefully instead of crashing.

Related

• ACP agents — overview, operator runbook, concepts
• Sub-agents
• Multi-agent routing