Zed ACP Bridge Usage

Bridge mode runs patb-cli as a background server that speaks the Zed Agent Connection Protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdin/stdout), so Zed can treat the remote "Pinky and the Brain" service as a custom external agent.

Starting bridge mode

node dist/index.js --bridge
# or
patb-cli --bridge

(-b is the short alias for --bridge.)

Configuring Zed

1. Open Zed.
2. Open your Zed configuration via the Command Palette (ctrl-shift-p / cmd-shift-p → zed: open settings).
3. Add the server entry under the agent_servers block:

{
  "agent_servers": {
    "patb-agent": {
      "type": "custom",
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/patb-cli/dist/index.js", "--bridge"]
    }
  }
}

tip

Use the absolute path to your compiled dist/index.js, and use forward slashes / even on Windows.

4. Save the settings. You can now use Zed's Agent panel to start threads and select the the-brain agent.

Protocol overview

The bridge (src/bridge.ts) implements these JSON-RPC methods:

Method	Behavior
initialize	Marks the server initialized and returns serverInfo / capabilities.
session/new	Creates a new remote thread (createAWSThread) and maps it to a local sessionId.
session/prompt	Triggers a run for the session's thread and streams session/update notifications back until the run completes (stopReason: "end_turn").
agents/list	Returns the single available agent, the-brain.

Progress and final responses are delivered as session/update notifications with sessionUpdate: "agent_message_chunk", mirroring the streaming behavior used in CLI Usage. See ACP Protocol for the full request/response reference, including error codes.