Eclipse IDE: Prototype of ACP/MCP Support

[jwflicker]

I'd like to share some progress, gauge interest and network a bit on an Eclipse IDE implementation of an ACP client. I can demo a WIP prototype that has:

• A built in MCP server running in Eclipse using the java-sdk and mcp-annotations
• A set of platform tools and resources to access workspace files, editors, consoles, markers, annotations, ...
• An extension point for plugins to contribute MCP services to the server using annotated methods
• a java implementation of an ACP client using lsp4j.jsonrpc customized to not use jsonrpc-over-http

Prototype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1d67Xzq3UU

[benbrandt]

@jwflicker this is cool! Once you have a repo or something we can link to, we can point people to it in the readme. Thanks for bringing ACP to new places!

[snwfdhmp]

Hey @jwflicker do you have any update on this?

[jwflicker]

Still a work in progress, hoping to get more helping hands. Pre-release drop is available though its still rough

https://github.com/eclipse-agents/eclipse-agents

[thomasritter]

@jwflicker This looks really promising! I wanted to let you know that we just had a Eclipse IDE community meet up in Stuttgart, Germany with lots of Eclipse platform committers in attendance. There was a lot of interest in this topic and, in my opinion, the willingness to get such ACP support into the platform and invest resources in further development is high. Maybe, you could present the project and your plans for it in the Eclipse Developers Community Call: https://github.com/eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.releng.aggregator/wiki/Eclipse-IDE-%E2%80%90-Developers-Community-Call

[jwflicker]

Sure email me at jflicke@us.ibm.com or join us on https://chat.eclipse.org/#/room/#eclipse-ide-ai-discussions:matrix.eclipse.org

They are bi monthly with one this Thursday? Which day is good and how many minutes to present for?

[thomasritter]

Great, joined the chat. Let's figure our the details over there together with Hannes.

[jwflicker]

Some ideations around MCP service integrations:

1. These Eclipse MCP tools and resources were written before ACP
2. MCP Clients outside of ACP wont have built in tools for read/write files/editors, and users may want these for integration
3. so maybe a separate set of defaults for ACP usage that leave out redundant file/editor tools
4. or a dedicated MCP server for ACP with custom tools
   1. maybe round trip a session token passed through the NewSession HTTP MCP url for some extra lock down
5. Doesn't seem to be any way to interact with MCP resource or resource templates from the ACP protocol... we can work around this for the Eclipse MCP

Resources but not third party ones

Some ideations around onboarding ACP usage:

1. Let users enable/disable read/write access as preferences
2. Let users configure the NewSession CWD working directory, default is workspace dir
   1. User's git projects may not be in the workspace folder, but rather added as linked projects
   2. For workspaces of multiple linked folders:
      1. Should we consider a NewSession feature for > 1 folders
      2. Use gemini specific --include-directories startup flag
3. Option to inform users when Eclipse MCP services are disabled when starting a new session

Thoughts about onboarding Gemini Integration into Eclipse

1. Give users an option to let Eclipse install/manage its own gemini cli or re-use global/alternative
2. Consider helping user configure the Eclipse install
   1. Add/Remove HTTP MCPs as workaround to New Session MCP limiations
   2. Let users specify a target gemini version (default latest)
      1. Example: recent regression broke MCP for latest
   3. Display of the actual installed version
   4. Let users specify whether to update gemini to target (latest) on startup
      1. Maybe they want to peg to a vetted version, weary of npm attacks
   5. Buttons to uninstall, install, update in preferences
3. Listing the start up command / let them customize it?
4. Buttons to manually stop/start an mcp agent (pick up changes)
5. List the capabilities of the ACP implemenation
6. Syncing pref changes to restarting agents and/or sessions

[jwflicker]

New Demo: Tool Calls, Permissions, File Changes, Tasks

[ivanrododendro]

Hey there,
I've just submitted my Eclipse ACP Connector to the Eclipse Marketplace, it's still in beta but it works quite good

https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/eclipse-acp-connector (maybe not visible yet, because it's in moderation state)

Here's the github repo https://github.com/ivanrododendro/eclipse-acp

Let me know your feedback !

[jwflicker]

Neat... yea we've recently open sourced the prototype we worked on last year... but not sure if additional investments will be made into it
https://github.com/IBM/eclipse-agents/tree/main

also in the meantime, i think Github Copilot for Eclipse was open sourced, so that might be a more polished UX to crib from...

[ivanrododendro]

That's great news, I'll take a look into it

Thanks

[ivanrododendro]

On Githb Copilot for Eclipse it turns out that the plugin core is tightly integrated with the Copilot Language Server and proprietary protocols. Maybe some UX components could be reused, but it'd need quite a work for integrate them.

In the meanwhile I have restyled th UX of Eclipse ACP connector, to make the experience close to main stream plugins such as codes, Claude code, ...

Cheers

[laeubi]

Hi @jwflicker, @ivanrododendro and everyone else following this thread,

I'm a long-time Eclipse committer, and I'm wondering whether the work in this thread could be brought together.
There are now at least two independent Apache-2.0 ACP clients for the Eclipse IDE (eclipse-agents and the Eclipse ACP Connector), and there is visible demand in the Eclipse Platform repositories (e.g. eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.ui#4076).
A Platform committer has already suggested that AI support should become its own Eclipse project (eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform#2097).

Would you be interested in a vendor-neutral Eclipse Foundation project for an ACP client for the Eclipse IDE, built on the existing work?
I could act as mentor and help with the Eclipse process, we would need two or three initial committers, ideally from different organizations.

A few quick questions to see if this makes sense:

1. Would you be interested in collaborating on that, as committer or contributor?
2. Could you imagine contributing your existing code (or parts of it) as a starting point?
3. Is there anything that would be a no-go for you?

If there is interest I'm happy get in contact with you and thanks for bringing ACP to Eclipse!

[ivanrododendro]

Hello @laeubi,
I totally get the idea of joining forces, but I just don’t have the time to get involved in another project right now.

Eclipse ACP Connector is full vibe coding; even with regular housecleaning, I am no sure it would be a good starting point.

I will keep developing it until a more complete alternative appears.

Cheers