Give your editor an agent that streams, asks before it touches files, and survives restarts
acplause is a Go-based Agent Client Protocol v2 agent that connects any ACP-compatible editor to OpenRouter or another OpenAI-compatible API — with permission gates, session persistence, and live terminal output.
- LinkLoot access
- Free
- Provider costs
- Unknown
What you get from it
What it does
acplause is an experimental agent built on the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) v2. Your editor talks to it over stdio; it thinks using any OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API — OpenRouter by default — and acts inside your workspace through tools.
It streams text and reasoning tokens back to the editor, surfaces tool calls, usage, and cost reporting in real time, and shows live bash terminal output with bounded snapshots for session replay. Before changing a file or running a command, it asks permission. Sessions survive process restarts and can move between editor windows. It supports model and reasoning-effort selection from OpenRouter's model list, PNG/JPEG prompt attachments, MCP tools over stdio and Streamable HTTP, structured user questions via ACP form elicitation, native execution plans with persistent progress, per-session Plan/Build modes with enforced tool restrictions, and a /compact command to summarize older context on demand.
Who it helps
Developers who want an AI coding agent wired into their existing editor rather than a separate chat window. If you already use an ACP v2 client, acplause slots in as the backend without replacing your workflow. The permission-before-write model suits anyone cautious about letting an agent modify files unsupervised. Cost and usage reporting helps teams tracking token spend across sessions.
Getting started
Three install paths exist:
- Homebrew (
brew install anesthetised/tap/acplause) builds the tagged source locally, installing Go as a build dependency. On macOS this avoids requiring a paid Developer ID certificate, at the cost of a slower first install including SQLite compilation. - Prebuilt binaries for macOS and Linux (arm64/amd64) are available from GitHub Releases with SHA256 checksums and artifact attestations. Note: prebuilt macOS binaries are not Developer ID signed or notarized, so macOS may block them until you explicitly allow execution.
- Go install (
go install github.com/anesthetised/acplause/cmd/acplause@latest) if you prefer the standard toolchain.
Configure your ACP v2 client to launch acplause with ACPLAUSE_API_KEY set to your provider key. Set ACPLAUSE_BASE_URL for a non-OpenRouter endpoint. Without a key, no Authorization header is sent, which works with local providers that don't require auth. Run acplause doctor to check local configuration and data directories, or acplause doctor --online to also verify provider connectivity.
Limits and costs
acplause is explicitly experimental. Calendar-versioned releases do not promise compatibility; breaking changes appear in release notes. It follows the pinned ACP v2 schema only. No pricing information is provided in the documentation — model costs depend entirely on whichever API provider you configure. The MIT license covers the software itself but says nothing about hosting or API usage fees.
Source links
Discussion
Share practical experience, questions, or warnings with the community.
Sign in to join the discussion and vote on comments.
Sign in