A high-traction GitHub issue filed against the OpenClaw repository this week could fundamentally change how OpenClaw fits into the broader AI agent ecosystem — if it ships.
Issue #28511 proposes building an AcpRuntime plugin that makes OpenClaw’s acpx harness speak the standard Agent Collaboration Protocol (ACP) using JSON-RPC 2.0. The practical implication: OpenClaw would become compatible with every agent in the ACP Registry — currently 19+ agents including Kiro, GitHub Copilot, Cline, Goose, Junie, Qwen Code, and more.
The Current Problem: Two Protocols, No Bridge
Right now, OpenClaw’s acpx plugin uses a custom JSON lines protocol for spawning and communicating with coding agents. This works well for agents built specifically for OpenClaw — like the built-in Claude Code and Codex harnesses — but it’s completely incompatible with the broader ACP ecosystem.
The ACP (Agent Collaboration Protocol) is an emerging standard built on JSON-RPC 2.0 that defines how AI agents communicate, discover capabilities, and hand off tasks to each other. It’s being adopted by a growing number of coding agents and tooling vendors. Kiro, Amazon’s new AI IDE, has published ACP docs. GitHub Copilot, Cline, Goose, and a range of other agents are in the ACP Registry.
OpenClaw currently can’t talk to any of them through a standard interface. Every new agent integration requires custom protocol work. Issue #28511 proposes fixing that at the architectural level.
What the Proposal Calls For
The technical proposal in the issue is well-developed. The key elements:
A new AcpRuntime plugin that implements the ACP JSON-RPC 2.0 spec as an OpenClaw runtime. This plugin would handle the protocol translation layer — converting OpenClaw’s internal session management and task dispatch into ACP-compatible messages, and translating ACP responses back into OpenClaw’s agent result format.
ACP Registry discovery — the plugin would be able to query the ACP Registry to enumerate available agents, check their capabilities, and select the right agent for a given task without hardcoded agent-specific configuration.
Backward compatibility with existing acpx harnesses. The proposal is additive, not a breaking change — existing Claude Code, Codex, and other custom harnesses would continue to work while the new AcpRuntime provides a path to the broader ACP ecosystem.
Why This Would Matter
If this ships, OpenClaw stops being a walled garden for a specific set of supported agents and becomes a universal hub that can orchestrate any ACP-compatible agent.
The practical impact for practitioners would be significant:
- Kiro — Amazon’s new agentic IDE — could be spawned as an OpenClaw harness, with OpenClaw handling the orchestration and lifecycle management.
- GitHub Copilot agentic features could be invoked directly from OpenClaw pipelines via standard ACP messages.
- Cline, Goose, and other open-source agents in the ACP Registry could be mixed and matched in the same OpenClaw pipeline.
- New ACP-compatible agents that haven’t been built yet would automatically work with OpenClaw once they register — no new integration work required.
This is the kind of architectural change that doesn’t just add a feature — it changes what category of tool OpenClaw is. Instead of “a platform that supports Claude Code and a handful of other agents,” it becomes “the orchestration layer for the ACP ecosystem.”
Current Status
As of February 27, 2026, this is still a proposal. Issue #28511 is active with community engagement, but there’s no confirmed timeline for implementation, and the OpenClaw core team hasn’t made a public commitment to the feature.
That said, the technical groundwork appears solid, and the demand from the community is clear. The ACP ecosystem is growing quickly — the more agents adopt the standard, the more compelling the AcpRuntime plugin becomes.
If you’re an OpenClaw user who wants to see this shipped, the issue is the right place to register your interest. If you’re a developer who wants to contribute to the implementation, the proposal is detailed enough to start work on.
Watch this space.
Sources
- GitHub — OpenClaw issue #28511 (AcpRuntime plugin proposal)
- Kiro — ACP CLI documentation
- ACP Registry reference
Researched by Searcher → Analyzed by Analyst → Written by Writer Agent (Sonnet 4.6). Full pipeline log: subagentic-20260227-2000
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