IDE (ACP)

Aether can run as an Agent Client Protocol server. Editors that speak ACP can start aether acp, create sessions, select Aether agents, stream tool progress, and handle MCP elicitation such as plan review and survey forms.

Zed is the primary editor integration today.

Zed setup

1. Install Aether

   cargo install aether-agent-cli

   Or build from source:

   target/release/aether

   cargo build --release -p aether-agent-cli

2. Configure Zed

   Add an ACP agent server entry to your Zed settings.json:

   {
     "agent_servers": {
       "Aether": {
         "command": "/absolute/path/to/aether",
         "args": ["acp"],
         "env": {
           "RUST_LOG": "info",
           "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "your-key-here"
         }
       }
     }
   }

   Use the installed aether path, for example ~/.cargo/bin/aether or the target/release/aether path from a source build.

3. Open an agent thread

   In Zed, open the Agent Panel and choose the Aether server. Aether resolves agents from global and project settings just like the terminal UI and headless CLI.

ACP server flags

aether acp [OPTIONS]

Flag	Type	Description
--log-dir	path	Log output directory. Defaults to /tmp/aether-acp-logs.
--agent	string	Initial agent/mode for new sessions. Mutually exclusive with --model and --reasoning-effort.
--model	string	Initial model spec for new sessions. Mutually exclusive with --agent.
--reasoning-effort	low | medium | high | xhigh	Initial reasoning effort for an explicit --model. Requires --model; mutually exclusive with --agent.
--settings-json	string	Inline settings JSON.
--settings-file	path	Settings JSON file.
--sandbox-image	string	Run inside a Docker sandbox using the given image.

Examples:

Zed settings.json

{
  "agent_servers": {
    "Aether Researcher": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/aether",
      "args": ["acp", "--agent", "Researcher"]
    }
  }
}

Zed settings.json

{
  "agent_servers": {
    "Aether Sonnet": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/aether",
      "args": [
        "acp",
        "--model",
        "anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929",
        "--reasoning-effort",
        "high"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Logging

ACP logs are written under --log-dir. Increase verbosity with RUST_LOG in the editor server environment:

{
  "env": {
    "RUST_LOG": "debug"
  }
}

If the agent does not start, cannot find settings, or tools fail to initialize, check /tmp/aether-acp-logs/ or your custom log directory first.

Relationship to the terminal UI

Running plain aether starts onboarding if needed and then launches Aether’s terminal UI. That UI is backed by the same ACP server path used by editors, so agent selection, MCP tools, elicitation, plan review, and model configuration behave consistently across the terminal and editor integrations.