Documentation
Everything you need to know about Agent Context Relay (ACR).
Getting Started
Install ACR, set up your first project, and launch your first coding agent.
Terminal & PTY
Up to 50 concurrent PTY sessions, split panes, scrollback that survives restarts.
Agent Context Relay
Capture, normalize, compact, and relay context between agents. The core ACR loop.
Git Worktrees
Automatic worktree creation, management, and cleanup. Per-branch terminal isolation.
Architecture
Electron + React + TypeScript desktop app, built on the MIT-licensed ORCA platform.
Plugins & MCP
Plugin system with hot reload, MCP Proxy Hub, capability-gated runtime.
Getting Started
ACR (Agent Context Relay) is a cross-platform desktop application for running and managing multiple AI coding agents. It combines a full-featured desktop workspace with portable agent continuity — capture, normalize, compact, and relay context between any supported coding agent.
Installation
Clone and build from source with pnpm:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/AgentContextRelay/acr-o.git cd acr-o pnpm install --frozen-lockfile pnpm dev
Requirements: Node.js 24+, pnpm 10.24+, macOS / Windows / Linux.
Terminal & PTY
ACR supports up to 50 concurrent PTY sessions, each running in its own terminal tab. Terminals are never unmounted — hidden tabs stay alive with full scroll history. Session state persists across app restarts.
- Split panes: up to 6 panes per tab, vertical and horizontal
- Zoom per-terminal with keyboard shortcuts
- Copy/paste with trailing whitespace trimming
- Command blocks: navigable, collapsible terminal segments
- Auto-standby: SIGSTOP idle agent terminals to save CPU
- Foreground process detection on macOS and Windows
Agent Context Relay
The core innovation of ACR is the portable context relay loop:
- Capture — Record every agent session into a durable, append-only project record under
.acr/ - Normalize — Convert provider-specific transcripts into a provider-neutral model (supports Claude, Codex, Gemini, and more)
- Compact — Generate a compact, inspectable handoff packet with decisions, diffs, test evidence, provenance, and next action
- Relay — Deliver the packet to a target agent through the managed launch workflow, with full source-target lineage
Handoff provenance events link source and target sessions, creating an auditable chain of agent continuity across different providers, sessions, machines and worktrees.
Git Worktrees
ACR fully manages Git worktrees: auto-creation on branch click, per-branch terminal isolation, and a Worktree Manager panel showing PR status, dirty file counts, and last commit at a glance.
Architecture
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Desktop Shell | Electron 43 + React 19 + TypeScript |
| Build Tooling | electron-vite + pnpm 10.24 |
| Terminal | xterm.js 6.1 (WebGL renderer) + node-pty |
| Editor | Monaco Editor + TipTap rich text |
| Speech | sherpa-onnx (local, GPU-accelerated) |
| Diagrams | Mermaid.js + KaTeX math |
| Storage | SQLite + JSONL (.acr/) + portable Markdown archives |
| Agent Protocol | MCP + CLI adapters + terminal-mode bridges |
| Testing | Vitest + Playwright (E2E) |
| Platform | macOS, Linux, Windows — local, SSH, and remote runtimes |
ACR's desktop platform is built on the MIT-licensed ORCA multi-agent workspace, extended with ACR's portable continuity engine, .acr/ archives, handoff packets, and WebBoxes factory manifests.
Plugins & MCP
ACR supports plugins as ES modules with hot reload and crash isolation. The capability-gated runtime ensures plugins only access what they declare. The MCP Proxy Hub manages upstream MCP servers with credential management and OAuth support.