github / github/copilot-cli

Title: ACP agent ignores custom JSON‑RPC methods and only exposes internal tool list

Open
#1,574 1 comment 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:agents area:non-interactive area:tools
Dominant language
Shell
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Description

### Describe the bug

**Summary:**
Running Copilot with --acp inside an ACP harness (https://github.com/rcarmo/vibes), the agent refuses to issue custom ACP JSON‑RPC method calls (e.g. vibes/store_media_file) and instead reports only its internal tool schema (bash, rg, etc.). This prevents ACP clients from adding custom tool capabilities.

**Request:**
Please confirm whether Copilot’s ACP runtime supports arbitrary JSON‑RPC method calls from the agent. If yes, what is the correct mechanism for the model to emit custom method calls? If no, can support be added?

### Affected version

GitHub Copilot CLI 0.0.413-0.

### Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Run Vibes with `VIBES_ACP_AGENT="copilot --acp --model gpt-5.2-codex" VIBES_PERMISSION_AUTO_APPROVE=true vibes`
2. Prompt agent with explicit instruction to send a JSON‑RPC request for vibes/store_media_file.
4. Observe logs: no request is emitted; agent only lists internal tools.

### Expected behavior

When instructed, the ACP agent should emit a JSON‑RPC request such as:

```json {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"vibes/store_media_file","params":{"path":"artifacts/report.pdf"}} ```

and then include the tool result’s content blocks in the final response.

### Additional context

**Actual behavior:**
Agent responds with: │ “I currently see these callable tools in this session: bash, write_bash, read_bash, … I don’t currently see native vibes/* tools │ exposed in this runtime.”

No JSON‑RPC request is sent for vibes/* methods.

**Why this is a problem:**
ACP is designed to allow clients to implement custom methods. The agent appears to ignore or reject these methods and instead relies on its internal tool registry, making custom ACP integration impossible.

**Environment:**
- Vibes server with ACP enabled
- Agent command: copilot --acp
- ACP debug logging enabled
- No vibes/* JSON‑RPC requests observed in logs

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the Vibes setup with `copilot --acp --model gpt-5.2-codex` and inspect the ACP debug logs for `vibes/store_media_file` requests. Compare the observed internal tool list with the expected JSON-RPC request and determine whether arbitrary methods are supported, documenting the correct mechanism or the scope needed to add support.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
api, cli
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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