#130130th of 143 in Coding agents and AI editors
agent-shell
Emacs client that runs ACP-compatible coding agents in native Emacs buffers
- Stars
- 2k
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Last commit
- Oct 2026
- Language
- Emacs Lisp
956 on 31 Mar 20261,977 on 20 Oct 2026
From GitHub's daily star counts.
Checked on GitHub.
Overview
agent-shell is an Emacs package built on comint via shell-maker. It talks to coding agents over the Agent Client Protocol (using acp.el), so you use normal buffers and key bindings instead of terminal emulation. The README lists 23 agents, including Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini CLI, Goose, Cursor, Copilot and OpenCode, plus any other ACP agent.
Who it is for: Emacs users who want coding agents inside Emacs buffers
Strengths
- Supports 23 named agents and any other ACP-speaking agent from one interface
- Uses regular Emacs buffers and bindings, with no terminal emulation
- Installable from MELPA; acp.el and shell-maker dependencies install automatically
- Active ecosystem of add-on packages for queues, notifications, Org transcripts and sandboxing
Weaknesses
- Emacs only; each agent's CLI or ACP adapter must be installed separately
- No tagged releases; versions are tracked only through MELPA and blog posts
- Several agents need a paid subscription or API key, and some need recent CLI versions
- GPL-3.0 license may constrain reuse in non-GPL code
What it needs
- no GPU
- Needs Emacs, acp.el, shell-maker, Node.js/npm (for several agent adapters), an ACP-capable agent CLI
- Models: Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini CLI, Goose, Grok Build
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