OpenAB is a lightweight, secure, cloud-native ACP harness that bridges Discord and Slack with any Agent Client Protocol (ACP)-compatible coding CLI. It delivers a next-generation development experience by enabling seamless interaction between chat interfaces and powerful AI coding assistants for developers and researchers.

How It Works

Built in Rust, OpenAB acts as a central gateway, translating chat messages into JSON-RPC requests over stdio for ACP-compatible command-line interfaces. It supports both Discord (Gateway WS, Socket Mode) and Slack, allowing simultaneous operation. Key architectural choices include thread-based multi-turn conversations for context management, edit-streaming for real-time message updates, and an emoji status reaction system for visual feedback on agent activity. This approach provides a unified, efficient, and cloud-native integration layer.

Quick Start & Requirements

Installation is primarily via Helm for Kubernetes deployments. A detailed guide for setting up Discord and Slack bots is available in the docs/ directory.

• Primary Install: Helm (helm repo add openab https://openabdev.github.io/openab, helm repo update, helm install openab openab/openab ...).
• Prerequisites: Discord Bot Token, Slack Bot Token/App Token, Kubernetes environment. kiro-cli requires device flow authentication (kubectl exec -it deployment/openab-kiro -- kiro-cli login --use-device-flow). Voice STT requires integration with Groq, OpenAI, or local Whisper.
• Links: Documentation: docs/discord-bot-howto.md, docs/slack-bot-howto.md.

Highlighted Details

• Multi-Platform: Supports simultaneous operation on Discord and Slack.
• Pluggable Agents: Integrates with Kiro CLI, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode, Copilot CLI, and Cursor via ACP.
• Conversational Flow: Features thread-based multi-turn conversations, automatically creating threads for interactions.
• Real-time Updates: Utilizes edit-streaming to update Discord messages live as tokens arrive (approx. 1.5s intervals).
• Voice STT: Auto-transcribes Discord voice messages using Groq, OpenAI, or local Whisper.
• Kubernetes Ready: Includes Dockerfile and Kubernetes manifests, with Persistent Volume Claims (PVC) for auth persistence.

Maintenance & Community

A community Discord server is mentioned as a place to connect. Specific details on maintainers, sponsorships, or a public roadmap are not detailed in the README.

Licensing & Compatibility

The project is licensed under the MIT license. This permissive license generally allows for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects without significant restrictions.

Limitations & Caveats

The Copilot CLI integration is noted with a warning symbol (⚠️), suggesting potential instability or specific setup requirements. No other explicit limitations, alpha status, or known bugs are detailed in the provided README.