ACP agents sessions

Start ACP sessions

Two ways to start an ACP session:

From sessions_spawn

Use runtime: "acp" to start an ACP session from an agent turn or tool call.

{
  "task": "Open the repo and summarize failing tests",
  "runtime": "acp",
  "agentId": "codex",
  "thread": true,
  "mode": "session"
}

From /acp command

Use /acp spawn for explicit operator control from chat.

/acp spawn codex --mode persistent --thread auto
/acp spawn codex --mode oneshot --thread off
/acp spawn codex --bind here
/acp spawn codex --thread here

Key flags:

• --mode persistent|oneshot
• --bind here|off
• --thread auto|here|off
• --cwd <absolute-path>
• --label <name>

See Slash commands.

sessions_spawn parameters

The person's requester_profile.id, required when several people have steered this turn.

Initial prompt sent to the ACP session.

Must be "acp" for ACP sessions.

ACP target harness id or configured ACP agent alias. Falls back to acp.defaultAgent if set. Raw harnesses create children under the requesting OpenClaw agent; configured aliases own their children. The harness remains the ACP runtime identity in either case. For cross-agent aliases, thread binding and inline delivery use the owner's bound channel account. A raw harness keeps the requesting agent's active inbound account.

Request thread binding flow where supported.

"run" is one-shot; "session" is persistent. If thread: true and mode is omitted, OpenClaw may default to persistent behaviour per runtime path. mode: "session" requires thread: true.

Requested runtime working directory (validated by backend/runtime policy). If omitted, ACP spawn inherits the OpenClaw owner's workspace when configured; missing inherited paths fall back to backend defaults, while real access errors are returned.

Operator-facing label used in session/banner text.

Resume an existing ACP session instead of creating a new one. The agent replays its conversation history via session/load. Requires runtime: "acp". The ID must be recorded for the selected backend and harness and belong to the requester (the requester itself or a session it spawned or parented). Unknown IDs are rejected without enumerating the agent's sessions. Historical harness-owned records remain eligible under the same checks; spawning does not move or rewrite their histories. OpenClaw checks ownership again before initializing the resumed runtime.

"parent" streams initial ACP run progress summaries back to the requester session as system events. OpenClaw records the full relay history in the child agent's SQLite state and removes it with the child session. Parent progress streams show assistant commentary and ACP status progress by default unless streaming.progress.commentary=false. Discord parent progress requires an explicit streaming.mode: "progress"; unset Discord streaming stays quiet. Status progress still honors acp.stream.tagVisibility, so tags such as plan remain hidden unless explicitly enabled.

ACP sessions_spawn runs use agents.defaults.subagents.runTimeoutSeconds for their default child turn limit. The tool does not accept per-call timeout overrides (runTimeoutSeconds/timeoutSeconds are rejected with a config-the-default error).

Explicit model override for the ACP child session. Codex ACP spawns normalize OpenAI refs such as openai/gpt-5.4 to Codex ACP startup config before session/new; slash forms such as openai/gpt-5.4/high also set Codex ACP reasoning effort. When omitted, sessions_spawn({ runtime: "acp" }) uses the target agent's subagents.model, then agents.defaults.subagents.model, then the target agent's explicit model.primary. If none is configured, it lets the ACP harness use its own default model. Native subagent spawns do not inherit an ACP agent's harness primary; they use native subagent settings or the native default instead. Other harnesses must advertise ACP model controls for an explicit selection. Without those controls, an explicit selection fails; an inherited default may be omitted so the harness can use its own default.

Explicit thinking/reasoning effort. For Codex ACP, minimal maps to low effort, low/medium/high/xhigh map directly, and off omits the reasoning-effort startup override. An explicit value takes precedence over a reasoning suffix in model, including off. When omitted, ACP spawns use existing subagent thinking defaults, the configured target agent's thinkingDefault, and per-model params.thinking for the selected model. The target agent's agents.entries.<agent>.models["provider/model"] setting overrides the shared agents.defaults.models["provider/model"] setting.

Spawn bind and thread modes

--bind here|off

Notes:

• --bind here is the simplest operator path for "make this channel or chat Codex-backed."
• --bind here does not create a child thread.
• --bind here is only available on channels that expose current-conversation binding support.
• --bind and --thread cannot be combined in the same /acp spawn call.

--thread auto|here|off

Notes:

• On non-thread binding surfaces, default behavior is effectively off.
• Thread-bound spawn requires channel policy support:
  • Discord/Telegram: session.threadBindings.spawnSessions=true
• Use --bind here when you want to pin the current conversation without creating a child thread.