How to Use AI Agents in IntelliJ IDEA With ACP - The JetBrains Blog

Agent Client Protocol (ACP) provides a standardized connection between IntelliJ IDEA and AI coding agents, allowing developers to use bundled agents such as Codex, Claude Agent, and Junie or add other compatible options without separate plugins or bespoke integrations. Similar to how the Language Server Protocol simplified language tooling, ACP uses JSON-RPC to let the IDE communicate with local agent processes while preserving each agent’s distinct models, authentication, planning behavior, tools, commands, and optional capabilities. IntelliJ IDEA remains the workspace for navigating projects, reviewing diffs, and managing edits, while agents handle tasks through the shared interface and can receive extra context via MCP servers. Developers can install public agents from the ACP Registry, which manages installation, updates, and uninstalling, or connect internal agents through an acp.json configuration file that specifies executable commands, arguments, and optional environment variables. The approach enables teams to select specialized agents for different work, retain control over credentials and privacy considerations, and switch agents if a provider becomes unavailable without leaving the same IntelliJ IDEA project.

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