| Provider and model onboarding |
Competitor harnesses expose provider/model configuration through command and interactive surfaces; local, subscription, API, cloud, and compatible-endpoint support varies by harness. |
Supported through one shared catalog. ratchet provider setup and the TUI /provider add wizard use the same provider catalog, settings schema, model discovery, and manual model ID fallback. The daemon keeps credentials in its existing secret provider and persists only a versioned secret reference; durable provider operations remain queryable after restart. Unix PTY and Windows ConPTY provider-save smokes guard against CLI/TUI drift. |
| ACP editor/agent boundary |
Zed External Agents run separate agent processes over ACP; ACP publishes versioned schema artifacts and negotiated protocol versions. |
Supported for initialize, new/load session, prompt, cancel, model, and in-process mode through ratchet acp; real stdio-style smoke is TestACPStdioPromptSmoke. ratchet acp config zed writes a custom agent_servers.ratchet entry so Zed can launch ratchet over ACP while ratchet keeps native provider/auth ownership. Session list/resume/close/delete remain deferred because acp-go-sdk v0.6.3 does not expose those agent methods yet. |
| ACP operational clients |
ACPX is a headless ACP client with persistent/named sessions, prompt queueing, cancel, status, history, import/export, structured output, compare/flow commands, runtime-owned action steps, flow workspace isolation, and persisted run artifacts. |
Supported foundation. ratchet-cli can drive external ACP agents with ratchet acp client exec, persist local ACP client session metadata, list/show/status sessions, append multi-prompt FIFO queue entries with --no-wait, inspect and explicitly watch/drain queued prompts, run acknowledged per-session daemon background drains through a descriptor-pinned built-in agent or trusted profile, record cooperative cancel requests, export/import ratchet-cli archive v1 JSON with summary history or raw ACPX JSON-RPC event-log history, inspect/copy raw ACPX event logs with sessions events, run serial compare across multiple ACP agents with optional compare --save bundles, run JSON v1 ACP/compute/action flows with replay-grade bundles and flow replay, export blackboard handoffs with --workflow-messaging workflow-plugin-messaging-core step.messaging_send metadata, reuse trusted ACP launch profiles from local or plugin-distributed templates, and verify trusted profiles with redacted ratchet acp client profiles verify. Background policies resume only when the resolved launch descriptor is unchanged and block without automatic retry on trust drift. Built-ins win over profile names; untrusted profiles do not resolve through --agent. Action nodes require --allow shell; cwd escapes require --allow outside-cwd; action stdout/stderr, raw event logs, compare bundles, and replay bundles are sensitive local artifacts. ACPX TypeScript flow runtime compatibility remains deferred; arbitrary ACP scheduling and credentialed third-party agent CI beyond the credential-free fixture profile proof also remain deferred. |
| MCP and tool surfaces |
Zed may forward configured MCP servers to External Agents; Codex and Claude Code both document MCP as a configurable tool extension surface. |
Supported for stdio MCP blackboard plus daemon-backed session/project/blackboard/team tools through ratchet mcp daemon. ratchet mcp config zed writes Zed context_servers.ratchet entries, and Claude Code/Copilot/generic config writers remain supported. team_message is daemon-backed for active teams and sends operator-originated messages to agents by team/agent id or name. |
| Permissions, sandbox, and trust |
Zed tracks sandbox/tool permissions in agent threads; Codex publishes sandbox/approval configuration docs; Claude Code has hierarchical settings, permissions, sandbox settings, and managed policy precedence. |
Partial. ratchet-cli has daemon-backed runtime /mode and /trust controls, permission prompts, persistent trust grants through workflow-plugin-agent/policy.PermissionStore, reviewable hook trust, and ACP launch profile trust. The Policy Matrix in docs/policy-matrix.md documents supported layers and deferred gaps; ratchet policy matrix exposes a read-only CLI view. Full Codex/Claude-style sandbox/path/network controls and Zed-style per-tool sandbox escalation UX remain deferred. |
| Hooks and extension points |
Claude Code hooks and settings reload across scopes and documents managed-policy hook controls; Pi extensions can intercept lifecycle/tool events and register tools/commands/UI; Codex has lifecycle hook config docs. |
Managed hooks are supported alongside review/trust for local command hooks and installed-plugin reload; broader SDK deferred. ratchet-cli applies a secure fixed-path administrator policy after user/plugin/project composition, supports additive and managed-only, makes managed descriptors immutable to local trust commands, fails closed on invalid policy or required pre-launch audit failure, and exposes metadata-only ratchet hooks policy --json and ratchet hooks audit --json inspection. Marketplace autoupdate, remote policy distribution, dynamic workflow execution/triggers, and the TypeScript extension SDK remain deferred. |
| Session history and compaction |
Pi stores sessions as JSONL trees, supports /tree, /fork, /clone, /compact, branch summaries, and extension-customized compaction. ACPX stores session metadata and turn history. |
Supported for daemon-backed branch navigation and local bundle handoff. ratchet-cli exposes ratchet sessions history, clone, fork, tree, browse, summary, compactions, and export; the TUI supports Pi-style in-place branch browsing through ctrl+b and /tree, selected-history reload, and stale-event protection. Daemon session export bundles and --format jsonl line-oriented exports may include prompts/responses and are sensitive local artifacts. |
| Multi-agent orchestration |
Claude Code subagents have scoped tools, permissions, MCP, hooks, memory, optional worktree isolation, and background behavior; OpenClaw routes channels/accounts/peers to isolated agents and workspaces. |
Partial. ratchet-cli has daemon team management and MCP team list/status/message. Worktree isolation, per-agent permission scopes, and channel routing remain future work. |
| Flexible harness composition |
Hermes emphasizes a composable multi-agent harness pattern; the Hermes meta-harness layers additional orchestration around agent roles and workflows. |
Partial. ratchet-cli has team orchestration, workflow integration, provider setup guides, ACP/MCP surfaces, Zed config writers, branch browser, reviewable hooks, and reusable ACP launch profiles, but it still lacks a runtime extension SDK for swapping harness behaviors without rebuilds. |
| Local-first gateway/channels |
OpenClaw positions a local-first gateway for sessions, channels, tools, events, multi-channel inboxes, companion apps, and sandboxing for non-main sessions. |
Deferred. Voice/mobile/canvas/channel gateway support is out of scope for this ratchet-cli release. Track as a separate product direction rather than expanding this release. |
| Windows distribution |
OpenClaw documents Windows onboarding and a Windows Hub; Claude docs include Windows config path behavior. |
Supported for release artifacts and non-interactive command startup. ratchet-cli now cross-builds Windows amd64/arm64 binaries and GoReleaser emits Windows zip archives. GoReleaser snapshot release-check, draft release asset postcheck, tap preflight, generated-cask publish, and tap postcheck gates verify release and Homebrew cask outputs before public release undraft. Windows ConPTY smoke covers the test-only smoke binary, and Windows command binary startup smoke runs native ratchet.exe --version and help; full packaged release ratchet.exe TUI/installer runtime remains deferred. No MSI, winget, or Windows service installer is claimed. |
| Self-improvement loop |
Pi can share session data and customize compaction through extensions; Claude Code supports skills/subagents/hooks/memory; Codex supports repo instruction files and hooks. |
Supported as opt-in reporting/evidence only. ratchet-cli records redacted evidence when retro.enabled is true and routes findings to local project, ratchet-cli upstream, workflow integration, or general process buckets. Automatic local mutation and upstream PR creation remain disabled by default. |