ACP Inspector

⚠️ Under Active Development – This project is in early development. Features and documentation are being actively built. Star and watch this repository to stay updated on progress.

A visual testing and debugging tool for Agent Client Protocol (ACP) servers and agents, similar to the MCP Inspector for Model Context Protocol.

Overview

ACP Inspector provides a developer-friendly interface for testing, debugging, and inspecting Agent Client Protocol implementations. Whether you're building ACP agents, integrating ACP into editors, or debugging agent-client communication, this tool helps you understand and validate the protocol flow.

What is Agent Client Protocol?

The Agent Client Protocol (ACP) is an open protocol for communication between AI coding agents and code editors. Created by Zed, ACP enables portable, interoperable AI agent experiences across different editors and IDEs.

Planned Features

• 🔌 Connection Testing – Connect to ACP agents over stdio and other transports
• 🔍 Session Management – Initialize, authenticate, and manage ACP sessions
• 📨 Message Inspector – View and analyze JSON-RPC messages in real-time
• 🛠️ Interactive Testing – Send prompts, approve permissions, and test tool calls
• 📊 Traffic Logging – Capture, save, and replay ACP communication for debugging
• ✅ Schema Validation – Verify compliance with ACP specification
• 🎨 Web-based UI – Modern, browser-based interface for easy access

Motivation

While the Model Context Protocol has excellent developer tooling (MCP Inspector), the Agent Client Protocol ecosystem currently lacks a comprehensive, standalone debugging tool. This project aims to fill that gap and accelerate ACP adoption by making it easier to build and test ACP implementations.

Roadmap

Phase 1: Core Infrastructure (In Progress)

• [ ] Set up project structure
• [ ] Integrate ACP TypeScript SDK
• [ ] Build basic stdio transport connection
• [ ] Create proxy server architecture

Phase 2: Basic Inspector UI

• [ ] Web-based UI with React
• [ ] Connection management interface
• [ ] Message log viewer
• [ ] Session state display

Phase 3: Advanced Features

• [ ] Interactive prompt testing
• [ ] Tool call simulation
• [ ] Traffic capture and replay
• [ ] Schema validation
• [ ] Support for additional transports

Phase 4: Polish & Documentation

• [ ] Comprehensive documentation
• [ ] Usage examples
• [ ] Video tutorials
• [ ] Performance optimization

Technology Stack

• Frontend: React, TypeScript
• Backend: Node.js, TypeScript
• ACP SDK: @agentclientprotocol/sdk
• Protocol: JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio (initially)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! This is a community-driven project, and we'd love your help building the best ACP debugging experience.

How to contribute:

• 🐛 Report bugs and issues
• 💡 Suggest features and improvements
• 📖 Improve documentation
• 🔨 Submit pull requests

Please note that this project is just getting started. Check back soon for contribution guidelines and development setup instructions.

Related Projects

• Agent Client Protocol Specification – Official ACP protocol spec
• MCP Inspector – Inspiration for this project
• acp.el – Emacs ACP implementation with traffic inspection
• Zed Editor – Original creator of ACP

Community

• Discussions: Use GitHub Discussions for questions and ideas
• Issues: Report bugs and feature requests in GitHub Issues
• Protocol Updates: Follow @zeddotdev for ACP news

License

MIT License – See LICENSE file for details

Acknowledgments

Inspired by the excellent MCP Inspector and the work of the Agent Client Protocol community. Special thanks to the Zed team for creating and open-sourcing ACP.

Status: 🚧 Early Development | Looking for Contributors: Yes | First Release: TBD

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