ACP Advanced Configuration

Finer settings for using Pando inside a code editor through ACP, the shared language editors use to host an outside assistant. Start with the guide Use Pando from your editor and other apps and the editor snippets in ACP Protocol; come here when you need to change how sessions behave.

Server Configuration

[Mesnada.ACP]
Enabled = false
DefaultAgent = 'pando'
AutoPermission = true

[Mesnada.ACP.Server]
Enabled = true
Transports = ['http']
Host = '0.0.0.0'
Port = 8766
MaxSessions = 100
SessionTimeout = '30m'
RequireAuth = false

Per-Session Overrides

ACP sessions support per-session configuration:

Field	Description
`cleanMode`	Disable extra system/prompt-builder instructions
`persona`	Override persona for this session
`model`	Override model for this session
`mode`	Override mode for this session
`thinkingMode`	Override thinking mode (`disabled`, `low`, `medium`, `high`)
`thinkingStreamMode`	Control how reasoning is streamed
`askPermission`	Per-session permission requirement

Slash Commands in ACP

Command	Description
`/goal <objective>`	Start goal mode
`/goal-status`	Show goal status
`/goal-cancel`	Cancel goal
`/compact`	Compact session context
`/summarize`	Alias for `/compact`
`/db-compact`	Database VACUUM
`/ponytail [mode]`	Toggle YAGNI mode

Clean Persona Mode

When cleanMode is enabled, Pando disables all extra system/prompt-builder instructions, giving the editor full control over the system prompt:

{
  "cleanMode": true
}

This is useful for editors that manage their own system prompts.

Plan Display

ACP sessions can display the agent’s task plan (TodoWrite entries) in the editor UI:

Real-time progress updates
Per-task status (completed, in-progress, pending)
Tool execution tracking

Thinking Stream

Control how reasoning is streamed to the editor:

{
  "thinkingStreamMode": "header"
}

Options: header, full, disabled

ACP works with VS Code, Zed and JetBrains editors. Setup snippets are in ACP Protocol.