agent-shell 0.55 updates
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June 11, 2026
agent-shell 0.55 updates
It's been a little while since my last agent-shell update, so let's go through the latest highlights as of v0.55.
What's agent-shell?
agent-shell is a native Emacs mode to interact with AI agents powered by ACP (Agent Client Protocol).
Picking up where I left off
If you noticed slower project activity in April, this is why. I'm getting better at the new 24-hour job, so I've resumed working on agent-shell.
I'm still chipping away at the backlog that built up while I was away, but if there's anything in particular you'd like me to look at, feel free to ping.
Anthropic, Google, and why ACP matters
With Anthropic's SDK subscription support changing, Google's Gemini CLI deprecation, and Antigravity's unclear support for the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), vendor-neutral tools matter more than ever.
Luckily, agent-shell is built on ACP, which sidesteps the problem. When a vendor changes course, you can swap providers and keep using your preferred tool. No need to reshape that hard-earned muscle memory.
On that note, the list of agents supported by agent-shell continues to grow.
Supported agents
Here's a list of the latest agents now supported by agent-shell.
Auggie
Claude
Cline
CodeBuddy (new by @illidan127)
Codex
Cursor
Factory Droid
Gemini CLI
GitHub Copilot CLI
Goose
Hermes (new by @yitang)
Kimi Code (new by @nicolaisingh)
Kiro
Mistral Vibe
OpenCode
Pi
Qwen Code
agent-shell needs your support
Speaking of vendor-neutral tools being more important than ever, there are a couple of ways to help keep agent-shell going. Some cost money, others just a click. All are appreciated ;)
Sponsorships for agent-shell longevity
agent-shell has been attracting quite a few users. It's nice to hear folks are using agent-shell on a daily basis. They are often relieved agent-shell exists as an alternative to AI-tools commonly mandated at work. Those tools have well-funded engineering teams behind them, while agent-shell is just me, an indie dev ;) Time spent on agent-shell is time away from work that pays the bills, so if it's useful to you, please consider sponsoring the project.
Every individual sponsorship genuinely helps keep the project going. And if your employer benefits from your agent-shell use, they're typically in a position to contribute at a scale individuals can't, so nudge them to chip in too.
Hey, I'm looking at you, folks at Google , GitHub , GitLab , NVIDIA , Oracle , Red Hat , Yelp, Venmo, ARM , Spotify , Augment Code , Hinge, Mercury, Nubank, Veeva… Some of you are using agent-shell. Nudge your employer ;)
GitHub stars for Anthropic credit
Anthropic offers 6 months of free Claude Max 20x for qualifying open-source projects with at least 5,000+ GitHub stars. Starring agent-shell costs nothing and can save me some money. We're only a 5th of the way there ;) so if you don't mind a couple of clicks, the project can really use another GitHub star.
Speaking of GitHub stars, agent-shell is now my most popular Emacs package, recently overtaking chatgpt-shell.
New markdown renderer
agent-shell now ships with a brand new, more performant inline markdown renderer. This is the biggest internal change in some time. Enabled by default via agent-shell-markdown-render-function (moving away from the overlay-based renderer in shell-maker).
Access/navigate table content
Table content is now accessible. Point can land on any cell, which wasn't possible with the previous overlay implementation. In addition, tables are now also navigable: TAB and S-TAB move between cells.
Improved source block support (enabled by default)
Source-block syntax highlighting is now on by default. The per-snippet copy button is now keyboard-accessible too (previously mouse-click only, due to the overlay implementation).
New blockquotes support
Blockquotes now render in both shell and viewport. More importantly, you can select text in either a viewport page (or the shell itself), press r (for reply) and the selection becomes a blockquote in a fresh prompt.
Viewport
Shell
Session restoration
Session restoration got a meaningful overhaul (#605 by @nhojb), now exposed via agent-shell-session-restore-verbosity, with four levels:
minimal (default): title only, so restore is fast and quiet (needs session/resume support).
last: render the last prompt turn (needs session/load support).
first-last: render the first and last prompt turns (needs session/load support).
full: replay the whole conversation (needs session/load support).
Feature availability is agent-specific, requiring either session/resume or session/load request support. agent-shell degrades as needed, ultimately falling...