ACP Host Integration

Kova Agent can run as an ACP server, letting ACP-compatible hosts talk to Kova over stdio. Editors can render:

• chat messages
• tool activity
• file diffs
• terminal commands
• approval prompts
• streamed thinking / response chunks

Other hosts can use the same protocol to route collaboration events into Kova. ACP is a good fit when you want Kova to keep its existing identity, provider setup, memory, skills, and tools while another application owns the conversation transport.

What Kova exposes in ACP mode

Kova runs with a curated kova-acp toolset designed for editor workflows. It includes:

• file tools: read_file, write_file, patch, search_files
• terminal tools: terminal, process
• web/browser tools
• memory, todo, session search
• skills
• execute_code and delegate_task
• vision

It intentionally excludes things that do not fit typical editor UX, such as messaging delivery and cronjob management.

Installation

Install Kova normally, then add the ACP extra from the install checkout:

cd ~/.kova/kova-agent && uv pip install -e '.[acp]'

This installs the agent-client-protocol dependency and enables:

• kova acp
• kova-acp
• python -m acp_adapter

Launching the ACP server

Any of the following starts Kova in ACP mode:

kova acp

kova-acp

python -m acp_adapter

Kova logs to stderr so stdout remains reserved for ACP JSON-RPC traffic.

For non-interactive checks:

kova acp --version
kova acp --check

Browser tools (optional)

Browser tools (browser_navigate, browser_click, etc.) depend on the agent-browser npm package and Chromium, which aren't part of the Python wheel. Install them with:

kova acp --setup-browser           # interactive (prompts before ~400 MB download)
kova acp --setup-browser --yes     # accept the download non-interactively

This is the standalone command. The terminal-auth flow (kova acp --setup) also offers the browser bootstrap as a follow-up question after model selection, so most users never need to run --setup-browser directly.

What it does:

• Installs Node.js 26 into ~/.kova/node/ if missing
• npm install -g agent-browser @askjo/camofox-browser into that prefix (no sudo needed — npm's --prefix points at the user-writable Kova-managed Node)
• Installs Playwright Chromium, or uses a detected system Chrome/Chromium when available

The bootstrap is idempotent — re-running it is fast and skips work that's already done.

Host setup

Buzz channels (relay bridge)

Buzz is a Nostr-based collaboration platform for people and agents. Its buzz-acp harness connects Buzz channels to any ACP agent over stdio:

Buzz relay <-- WebSocket --> buzz-acp <-- ACP over stdio --> Kova Agent

This is a transport integration, not a second Kova installation. The subprocess launched by buzz-acp uses the same Kova configuration, credentials, memory, skills, and state as kova on that host.

(This is distinct from Buzz Desktop's managed runtime, which spawns Kova locally as a preset harness. The relay bridge is for joining Buzz channels as an agent identity, typically on a server.)

Prerequisites:

• Complete the ACP installation and kova acp --check above.
• Build buzz-acp and the buzz CLI from the Buzz repository (cargo build --release -p buzz-acp).
• Mint a dedicated Nostr keypair for Kova (buzz-admin generate-key) and register it as a relay member (buzz-admin add-member). Every agent needs its own identity — do not reuse a human keypair.
• Add that identity to the intended Buzz channels.

Start a bridge with:

export BUZZ_RELAY_URL="wss://community.example.com"
export BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY="..."
export BUZZ_API_TOKEN="..."
export BUZZ_ACP_AGENT_COMMAND="kova"
export BUZZ_ACP_AGENT_ARGS="acp"

buzz-acp

BUZZ_API_TOKEN is needed only when the relay enforces token authentication. Do not commit or paste the private key or API token.

For a persistent server deployment, run buzz-acp under a service manager as the same operating-system user that owns the intended Kova home. Setup, key generation, channel discovery, and per-agent options are documented in the buzz-acp README.

The bridge discovers every Buzz channel where the Kova identity is a member and automatically subscribes when it is added to another channel. Buzz channel membership therefore remains the access boundary; Kova does not need a separate channel list in its own configuration.

To expose Kova ACP activity in the owner's Buzz Desktop, add:

export BUZZ_ACP_RELAY_OBSERVER="true"

This publishes encrypted kind 24200 observer frames addressed to the agent's owner (Buzz's NIP-AO). Desktop renders the live lifecycle, tool, response, and usage stream in the agent's Activity log. The relay treats these frames as ephemeral, so Desktop must be online before the turn starts; its local observer archive is the durable owner-side history.

Headless bridges answer ACP permission requests themselves because no editor is present to show approval dialogs — see Keep Buzz agents owner-only. Treat the bridge as privileged automation: use a dedicated operating-system account, restrict which Buzz users can prompt the agent (buzz-acp supports an owner-only respond gate via BUZZ_ACP_AGENT_OWNER), and grant membership only in channels where Kova is expected to work.

VS Code

Install the ACP Client extension.

To connect:

1. Open the ACP Client panel from the Activity Bar.
2. Select Kova Agent from the built-in agent list.
3. Connect and start chatting.

If you want to define Kova manually, add it through VS Code settings under acp.agents:

{
  "acp.agents": {
    "Kova Agent": {
      "command": "kova",
      "args": ["acp"]
    }
  }
}

Zed

Configure Kova as a custom agent server in Zed settings:

1. Open the Agent Panel.
2. Add a custom agent server with the following configuration:

{
  "agent_servers": {
    "kova-agent": {
      "type": "custom",
      "command": "kova",
      "args": ["acp"]
    }
  }
}

3. Start a new Kova external-agent thread.

Prerequisites:

• Configure Kova provider credentials first with kova model, or set them in ~/.kova/.env / ~/.kova/config.yaml.

JetBrains

Use an ACP-compatible plugin and point it at kova acp or kova-acp.

Buzz Desktop

Buzz ships Kova Agent as a preset runtime. With Kova installed the normal way, Buzz discovers it automatically — open Settings → Runtimes and Kova appears under your runtimes.

If discovery fails (older installs), make sure the ACP launcher resolves on a login-shell PATH:

command -v kova-acp || command -v kova

Recent installs write both kova and kova-acp launchers into ~/.local/bin; running kova update adds the kova-acp launcher to older installs. As a manual fallback, configure Buzz's agent command as kova with args ["acp"].

Model picker

Buzz Desktop (v0.5.1+) renders Kova' full model menu in the agent's runtime settings. The list comes from Kova itself over ACP: it shows every model from providers you have authenticated in Kova (the same inventory behind kova model and the /model command), so a model missing from the menu means its provider has no credentials configured on the Kova side.

Entry IDs take the form provider:model (e.g. openrouter:z-ai/glm-5.1), or custom:<name>:<model> for custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints defined in config.yaml. Picking a model applies to that agent's session; it does not change your Kova-wide default — use kova model for that.

Keep Buzz agents owner-only

Buzz creates every agent with Who can talk to this agent set to Owner only. Leave it there when the runtime is Kova.

Two behaviors combine on this path. The kova-acp toolset includes terminal and execute_code, and Buzz's ACP bridge answers Kova' permission requests itself with allow_once rather than surfacing them. A Kova agent in Buzz therefore runs shell commands on the host without prompting. I asked one to run rm -rf against a scratch directory and it deleted it, no prompt anywhere.

Selecting Anyone hands that same shell access to every author who can reach the channel. Buzz does not warn when you pick it.

Neither of the obvious mitigations works today:

• approvals.mode: manual does make Kova raise the permission request, but Buzz auto-approves it and the command still runs.
• platform_toolsets.acp does not narrow the ACP toolset, so it cannot be used to drop terminal.

!shutdown from the owner stops the agent in any mode, and Buzz ignores that command from everyone else.

Configuration and credentials

ACP mode uses the same Kova configuration as the CLI:

• ~/.kova/.env
• ~/.kova/config.yaml
• ~/.kova/skills/
• ~/.kova/state.db

Provider resolution uses Kova' normal runtime resolver, so ACP inherits the currently configured provider and credentials. Kova also advertises a terminal auth method (--setup) for first-run ACP clients; this opens Kova' interactive model/provider setup.

Host integration

These variables are set by an ACP host process (an editor or another agent harness) on the Kova subprocess it spawns. They are not user configuration — do not set them by hand in .env or config.yaml.

Variable	Value	Effect
KOVA_ACP_SKIP_CONFIGURED_MCP	1	Skip starting the globally configured MCP servers from config.yaml before the ACP JSON-RPC loop begins.

Kova normally starts every MCP server configured in config.yaml before it enters the ACP JSON-RPC loop. A host that owns MCP itself — passing the session's servers explicitly through session/new — does not need that global startup, and an unrelated slow or interactive MCP server would otherwise delay initialize. Setting the marker to exactly 1 lets such a host skip it.

Only the global config.yaml discovery is skipped. MCP servers supplied by the ACP session through session/new are still registered, so a host loses no capability it asked for. Any other value (unset, empty, 0, false) keeps the default behavior, so an unrelated truthy-looking string cannot silently disable MCP.

Session behavior

ACP sessions are tracked by the ACP adapter's in-memory session manager while the server is running.

Each session stores:

• session ID
• working directory
• selected model
• current conversation history
• cancel event

The underlying AIAgent still uses Kova' normal persistence/logging paths, but ACP list/load/resume/fork are scoped to the currently running ACP server process.

Working directory behavior

ACP sessions bind the editor's cwd to the Kova task ID so file and terminal tools run relative to the editor workspace, not the server process cwd.

Approvals

Dangerous terminal commands can be routed back to the editor as approval prompts. ACP approval options are simpler than the CLI flow:

• allow once
• allow always
• deny

Whether you actually see a prompt is up to the host. A host is free to answer the request programmatically instead of showing it to you, in which case these options exist on the wire but never reach a human. Buzz Desktop does this, so treat that path as unattended execution regardless of your approvals setting.

On timeout or error, the approval bridge denies the request.

Session-scoped edit auto-approval

ACP exposes a third tier between allow once and allow always: Allow for session. Picking it from the editor's permission prompt records the approval inside the current ACP session only — every subsequent matching command in that session goes through without prompting, but a new ACP session (or restarting the editor) resets the slate and re-prompts the first time.

Option	Editor label	Scope	Persisted across restarts
allow_once	Allow once	This one tool call	No
allow_session	Allow for session	All matching calls in this ACP session	No — cleared when the session ends
allow_always	Allow always	All future sessions	Yes (written to the Kova permanent allowlist)
deny	Deny	This one tool call	No

allow_session is the right default for an editor workflow where you trust an agent for the duration of a task but don't want to grant a long-lived allowlist entry. The safety trade-off is straightforward: the broader the scope, the less the editor will interrupt you, and the more damage a misbehaving agent (or prompt injection) can do before you notice. Start with allow_once for unfamiliar commands; promote to allow_session once you've seen the agent run the same pattern correctly a few times; reserve allow_always for truly idempotent commands you trust forever (e.g. git status).

The ACP bridge maps these options onto Kova' internal approval semantics — allow_always writes a permanent allowlist entry the same way the CLI does, while allow_session only affects the in-process approval cache for the current ACP session.

Troubleshooting

ACP agent does not appear in the editor

Check:

• For manual/local development, verify the host command points to kova acp.
• Kova is installed and on your PATH.
• The ACP extra is installed (cd ~/.kova/kova-agent && uv pip install -e '.[acp]').

ACP starts but immediately errors

Try these checks:

kova acp --version
kova acp --check
kova doctor
kova status

Missing credentials

ACP mode uses Kova' existing provider setup. Configure credentials with:

kova model

or by editing ~/.kova/.env. The terminal auth flow (kova acp --setup) can also trigger the interactive provider/model setup.

See also

• Buzz ACP harness
• ACP Internals
• Provider Runtime Resolution
• Tools Runtime