ACP agents — setup

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

This page covers 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:

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

acpx harness support (current)

Built-in acpx harness aliases (from the pinned acpx dependency):

factory-droid and factorydroid also resolve to the built-in droid adapter.

When OpenClaw uses the acpx backend, prefer these values for agentId unless your acpx config defines custom agent aliases. grok-build is an ACPX agent target, not the xAI model id xai/grok-build-0.1. Use agentId: "grok-build" to launch the Grok Build CLI through ACP; use xai/grok-build-0.1 only when selecting that model on OpenClaw's xAI provider route. 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 an advertised model config option with session/set_config_option, or legacy ACP models with session/set_model. Without supported ACP model control or an adapter-specific startup model flag, OpenClaw/acpx cannot force a model selection.

GitHub Copilot CLI in native chat

GitHub Copilot CLI can serve ordinary OpenClaw chat through the installed-agent model picker, including web chat and channels. This route uses the local copilot --acp --stdio process, not an OpenClaw API-provider credential.

Install an ACP-capable CLI and sign in under the same OS account that runs the Gateway. Copilot CLI 1.0.86 supports model discovery and selection over ACP:

npm install -g @github/copilotcopilot --versioncopilot login

Refresh the model catalog, then choose an acp-copilot/<model-id> entry. OpenClaw uses only the models advertised by that CLI; it does not supply a static model list. Installation detection alone does not prove authentication or model access. To prevent new native Copilot turns and catalog discovery, set plugins.entries.acpx.config.nativeAgents.copilot to false. Classic /acp spawn copilot sessions and acp.allowedAgents are separate.

Copilot owns authentication and billing:

• Native GitHub authentication uses the CLI's OAuth login or its supported GitHub token routes, including an authenticated gh fallback. Environment tokens (COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN, GH_TOKEN, GITHUB_TOKEN) can override a stored login.
• Copilot model usage consumes the account's plan allowance. Do not assume a model is free because its catalog entry is available; check the account's included usage and additional-usage budget.
• Explicit CLI BYOK configuration (COPILOT_PROVIDER_*, COPILOT_PROVIDERS_CONFIG, or the CLI's providers.json) can route model requests to a separately billed provider even when GitHub login is available. Configure that route deliberately. OpenClaw does not choose it or copy an OpenClaw API credential into the native harness.

See GitHub's CLI authentication guide and Copilot billing guide for account and plan requirements. Native chat permission and sandbox boundaries below still apply.

Installed native agents keep their own sign-in. During discovery, /models can report Checking native agent without requiring an OpenClaw API key. If availability is unconfirmed, check the native app on the Gateway host and run /models again.

Permissions for native chat runtimes

Enable an installed agent from Models → Installed agents. For a runtime that uses its own native permissions, OpenClaw asks Use {runtime}’s native permissions? before enabling it. Accepting remembers consent for the selected OpenClaw agent in the same config update as enablement. New chats using that runtime then start with Full access and optional sandboxing off, without repeating the prompt. Enabling a native app does not sign you in to that app.

The native agent uses its own permissions on the Gateway host. OpenClaw does not claim to enforce its optional tool restrictions inside that agent. Other agents and their chats stay unchanged, and tools hosted by OpenClaw retain their policy. Remove the runtime ID from agents.entries.<agentId>.nativeRuntimeConsent to revoke remembered consent. Disabling and re-enabling the app does not erase it.

For a runtime configured manually without remembered consent, the Control UI still offers Continue for this chat to an administrator when selecting the runtime or sending a message with that selection. This fallback changes only that chat's permissions.

Declining leaves permissions unchanged and keeps the message unsent. A first send can create an empty chat so confirmation is bound to that chat, but no message is saved or run before you confirm. Confirmation saves the permissions and retries that message once, including a chat's first message, without pinning its default model. Selection-only confirmation does not send the draft. This per-chat consent is not inherited by another chat and is cleared when the session resets or the selected runtime changes.

Required sandboxes, required workspace boundaries, and incompatible remote execution placement cannot be waived by this confirmation. A restricted user must ask an administrator or choose a compatible runtime.

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",      "grok-build",      "iflow",      "kilocode",      "kimi",      "kiro",      "openclaw",      "opencode",      "pool",      "qwen",    ],    stream: {      deliveryMode: "live",    },  },}

Thread binding config is shared across supported channel adapters:

{  session: {    threadBindings: {      enabled: true,      idleHours: 24,      maxAgeHours: 0,      spawnSessions: true,    },  },}

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

• Discord: session.threadBindings.spawnSessions=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.

Repair existing bare-session histories

ACPX isolates bare session names by OpenClaw owner. If a session reports SESSION_OWNER_MIGRATION_REQUIRED, stop the Gateway and run openclaw doctor --fix, then restart. Doctor uses the same service workspace as the Gateway; ACPX's default state directory is <service workspace>/state.

The repair requires one current, unambiguous stored owner claim with matching backend identifiers. It preserves the raw history, event-log references, upstream session IDs, timestamps, options, and usage. Persistent record names move to an owner-qualified resource; existing oneshot physical IDs and histories remain intact. Ambiguous, stale, conflicting, unreadable, or live records remain in place with a diagnostic. Resolve the reported evidence problem before retrying; resetting the session does not bypass this repair.

This is an offline, crash-recoverable migration with atomic destination-file publication. Files and SQLite are not one atomic transaction. Interrupted repairs can be rerun: Doctor checks the existing destination and stored owner claim before finishing the metadata update and archiving the old persistent record.

Plugin setup for acpx backend

Packaged installs use the official @openclaw/acpx runtime plugin for ACP. Install and enable it before using ACP harness sessions:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/acpxopenclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.enabled true

Source checkouts can also use the local workspace plugin after pnpm install.

Start with:

/acp doctor

If you disabled acpx, denied it via plugins.allow / plugins.deny, or want to switch back to the packaged plugin, use the explicit package path:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/acpxopenclaw 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 runtime startup check

The acpx plugin embeds the ACP runtime directly (no separate acpx binary or version to configure). By default it registers the embedded backend during Gateway startup and waits for one health check before the gateway ready signal. That check also supplies failure diagnostics and is bounded by plugins.entries.acpx.config.timeoutSeconds; an unhealthy result does not launch a second check. Set OPENCLAW_ACPX_RUNTIME_STARTUP_PROBE=0 or OPENCLAW_SKIP_ACPX_RUNTIME_PROBE=1 only for scripts or environments that intentionally keep the startup check disabled.

Health checks run from the plugin-owned <state>/acpx directory, which the service creates before probing. They do not require the default agent workspace to exist. Sessions still launch in their requested cwd, falling back to the configured plugin or service workspace when no session directory is supplied.

A failed check makes the backend unavailable for ACP spawns across the Gateway. After correcting the cause, run /acp doctor to check again; a successful check restores availability without restarting. Spawn attempts do not automatically retry the health check.

Override an individual ACP agent command with structured arguments when a path or flag value should remain one argv token:

{  "plugins": {    "entries": {      "acpx": {        "enabled": true,        "config": {          "agents": {            "claude": {              "command": "node",              "args": ["/path/to/custom adapter.mjs", "--verbose"]            }          }        }      }    }  }}

• agents.<id>.command is the executable or existing command string for that ACP agent. An existing absolute executable path stays one argument even when it contains spaces.
• agents.<id>.args is optional. Each item is passed unchanged, including empty strings, spaces, quotes, and backslashes. Do not add shell quoting inside the array.

On Windows, put the executable path in command and its flags in args. Quote relative executable paths containing spaces when using a command string. Generated adapter wrappers also use argv arrays. Reconnecting an unchanged session preserves its saved command representation and conversation history.

See Plugins.

Automatic adapter download

acpx auto-downloads ACP adapters (for example the Claude and Codex ACP bridges) via npx on first use. You do not need to install adapter packages manually, and there is no separate postinstall step for OpenClaw itself. If an adapter download or spawn fails, /acp doctor reports the failure.

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.
• Passes the active ACP session identity to plugin tool factories, so agent-scoped tools stay in that agent's namespace.
• 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 operation timeout configuration

The acpx plugin gives embedded runtime startup and control operations 120 seconds by default. This gives slower harnesses such as Gemini CLI enough time to complete ACP startup and initialization. Override it if your host needs a different operation limit:

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

Runtime turns use OpenClaw agent/run timeouts, including /acp timeout. An interactive turn can continue beyond the plugin operation limit until its turn budget expires, the harness finishes, or you cancel it. sessions_spawn does not accept per-call timeout overrides; the operator path is agents.defaults.subagents.runTimeoutSeconds. With the default hybrid reload mode, changing timeoutSeconds automatically reloads the plugin. See Config hot reload.

Health check agent configuration

When /acp doctor or the startup check verifies the backend, the bundled acpx plugin checks 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 check agent explicitly:

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

With the default hybrid reload mode, this change automatically reloads the plugin. Run /acp doctor to check the updated backend.

Permission configuration

ACP sessions run without an interactive TTY for file-write and shell-exec permission prompts. This does not disable ACP form or URL elicitation during a channel-delivered turn: those requests use transient Gateway questions instead. The acpx plugin provides two config keys that control harness permissions, permissionMode and nonInteractivePermissions, both described below.

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.

For the broader comparison between OpenClaw tools.exec.mode, Codex Guardian approvals, and ACPX harness permissions, see Permission modes.

permissionMode

Controls which operations the harness agent can perform without prompting.

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).

Configuration

Set via plugin config:

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

With the default hybrid reload mode, these changes automatically reload the plugin. See Config hot reload for other reload modes.

Related

• ACP agents — overview, operator runbook, concepts
• Sub-agents
• Multi-agent routing
• ACPx plugin reference — the acpx runtime plugin's manifest and config, including the Pi session catalog