Eclipse IDE integrations with Coding Agents over ACP and MCP

NOTE: This code base is a work in progress and is a pre-release. It is being shared at this time for communication and co-ordination purposes

This feature adds an open-source Coding Agent chat experience to Eclipse, built atop two open protocols:

• Model Context Protocol
  • Standardizes communication between agents and external resources, tools and prompts.
• Agent Client Protocol
  • Standardizes communication between IDEs and coding agents.

Model Context Protocol services for Eclipse IDE

This feature runs a Model Context Protocol server within the Eclipse IDE VM enabling interactivity between Eclipse based experiences and LLM-powered Agentic experiences running within or outside of the Eclipse IDE. Features include:

• An MCP server using the mcp java sdk running inside the workbench that can serve over HTTP
• A set of built-in platform services including:
  • Access to workspace, editors, consoles, markers, annotations, …
  • Resource templates with variables and content assist
• An extension point for plugins to contribute MCP tools and resources to the Eclipse MCP server
  • Contribute MCP resources using annotated functions via MCP Annotations and Jackson Annotations
• Centralized preferences, tracing, capabilities

MCP Integrations

• Eclipse MCP services can be consumed by any MCP client such as:
  • Desktop Apps such as Claude Desktop
  • Terminal CLIs such as Gemini and Claude Code
• IDEs such as Eclipse and VS Code
  • Within Eclipse using Copilot for Eclipse
  • Run a CLI inside an Eclipse terminal
  • The Agent Client Protocol powered chat described below

Agent Client Protocol (ACP) Services for Eclipse IDE

• The Agent Client Protocol formalizes an IDE to Coding Agent protocol
  • A “Coding Agent” is a local app, typically a CLI, that can access files, run approved terminal commands, serve as an MCP client, and use LLMs to perform complex tasks as prompted by the end user.
• Existing implementations include:
  • Editor Implementations
    • Zed
    • emacs
    • neovim
    • marimo notebook
  • Agent Implementations
    • Gemini
    • Claude Code
    • Goose
• Features of the protocol include:
  • Chat Session Lifecycle
  • User Prompt Lifecycle
  • Client can forward list of MCP Servers to Agent
  • Tool Use Confirmation
  • API for read/write file/editor buffers
  • Embedded and referenced resources
  • / # @ commands

Screenshots