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Updates, deep-dives, and announcements from the ACR project.

Introducing Agent Context Relay (ACR)

ACR is a cross-platform desktop workspace for running, managing, and chaining multiple AI coding agents. Learn about the Capture → Normalize → Compact → Relay loop that makes it possible to hand off context between agents seamlessly.

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Introducing Agent Context Relay (ACR)

July 21, 2026

What is ACR?

Agent Context Relay (ACR) is an open-source, cross-platform desktop workspace built for developers who work with multiple AI coding agents. If you use Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, or any other terminal-based coding agent — ACR is the command center that ties them all together with portable continuity.

The problem

Modern AI-assisted development often involves running multiple agents across different branches, tasks, and even different providers. Each agent operates in isolation — there is no built-in way to hand off context from one agent to another. When you switch from Claude Code to Codex, you start from scratch: re-explain the problem, re-establish the context, re-do the discovery work.

Agents also hit rate limits, exhaust context windows, or simply produce weaker output on certain problems. Without portable continuity, you are locked into a single provider for the life of a task.

The ACR solution

ACR builds a vendor-neutral context relay system on top of a proven multi-agent desktop platform (the MIT-licensed ORCA engine):

  1. Capture — Every agent session is recorded into a durable, append-only project record stored under .acr/.
  2. Normalize — Provider-specific transcript formats (Claude JSONL, Codex rollout JSONL, Gemini JSON) are converted into a single provider-neutral model.
  3. Compact — A semantic handoff packet is generated containing decisions made, diffs, test evidence, git state, open questions, and the exact next action — with full source-target provenance.
  4. Relay — The packet is delivered to the target agent through the managed launch workflow, so the next agent continues exactly where the first left off — with zero re-explanation.

A full developer workspace

ACR is not just about relay. It provides a complete multi-agent development environment:

  • Up to 50 concurrent terminal sessions — each in its own tab with full scroll history
  • Git worktree orchestration — auto-create, manage, and clean up worktrees per branch
  • Parallel agents — fan one prompt across multiple agents in isolated worktrees, compare results
  • Agent launcher — 20+ supported agents: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Qwen Code, Hermes, and more
  • Session history browser — browse past sessions as rendered chat transcripts
  • SSH & remote runtimes — run agents on remote boxes with full file editing, git, and terminal access
  • Built-in AI Chat — multi-provider, with autonomous agent mode
  • Monaco & TipTap editing — VS Code's editor with Markdown, Mermaid diagrams, and rich previews
  • Plugin system — ES modules, hot reload, capability-gated runtime
  • MCP Proxy Hub — manage upstream MCP servers with OAuth
  • Voice dictation — local on-device speech recognition, fully private

Product family

ACR is part of a product family built on shared platform foundations:

  • ACR (agentcontextrelay.com) — the portable continuity engine and developer product
  • OpenWebboxes — the open-source desktop distribution and console
  • WebBoxes (webboxes.ai) — commercial factory catalog with installation, hosting, and managed API credits

Current status

ACR is under active development. The product is in Prototype 0 — establishing the Electron/React platform baseline and delivering the first end-to-end continuity loop. Completed milestones include:

  • Root-level Electron/React/TypeScript application from ORCA baseline
  • ACR identity and product surface
  • Portable continuity archive contract (.acr/)
  • Semantic handoff packet definition
  • Provider-neutral transcript normalization
  • Feature 015 platform audit and capability mapping

Build from source and follow development on GitHub.