Run Claude Code in IntelliJ IDEA with ACP in Just 10 Minutes

Background

Zed is a Rust‑written editor with excellent performance but tiny market share; JetBrains IDEA dominates Java development but has been losing ground to VS Code + Copilot in the AI‑coding wave.

Both projects collaborated to create the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), a standard that lets any AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, etc.) communicate with any editor that implements the protocol.

Configuration (≈10 minutes)

Step 1 – Install the plugin

Search for AI Assistant in the IntelliJ IDEA plugin marketplace and install it.

Step 2 – Set up ACP

Open the AI configuration panel, locate the ACP agent settings and replace the JSON with the following:

{
  "default_mcp_settings": {},
  "agent_servers": {
    "Claude Code ACP": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@zed-industries/claude-code-acp"]
    },
    "Codex ACP": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@zed-industries/codex-acp"]
    }
  }
}

The two packages @zed-industries/claude-code-acp and @zed-industries/codex-acp wrap the original agents into an ACP‑compatible form.

Step 3 – Install the adapters locally

If the network is slow, install the adapters globally once:

npm install -g @zed-industries/claude-code-acp --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/
npm install -g @zed-industries/codex-acp --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/

Make sure the underlying Claude Code or Codex binaries are already installed; the adapters are only bridges.

Enabling MCP

ACP can also connect to an MCP server, allowing agents to access databases or call APIs. You can copy the Stdio configuration into Claude and let it generate the MCP settings automatically.

After configuration, start a conversation, select “Claude Code ACP” or “Codex”, and the agent works inside IDEA.

Conclusion

ACP eliminates the need for separate plugins per editor, similar to how JDBC standardizes database access or LSP standardizes language services. By unifying the protocol, JetBrains and Zed gain a competitive edge against the VS Code‑Copilot monopoly, and developers get a smoother AI‑coding experience in IDEA.