# ACP terminal methods

## Metadata

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Institute | Molodetz Institute — Research & Retrieval Division |
| Subject | cap-protocol |
| Document type | Source Dossier |
| Tier | 1 |
| Source title | ACP Terminals |
| Source URL | https://agentclientprotocol.com/protocol/v1/terminals.md |
| Source type | specification |
| Source date (published) | Unknown, not stated (living docs) |
| Date researched | 2026-10-18 |
| Researched by | tai (agent), model: Muse Spark, on behalf of retoor |
| Research method | direct page fetch, read in full (284 lines) |
| Confidence | Medium |
| Status | Active |

## Summary

Client-hosted terminals: capability-gated in `initialize`, then `terminal/create` (command/args/env-list/cwd/outputByteLimit, truncation at char boundary), `terminal/output` (full output plus truncated flag plus exitStatus when exited, no offset param), `terminal/wait_for_exit`, `terminal/kill` (terminal stays valid), `terminal/release` (kills plus invalidates the id), mirroring the coding profile's terminal methods with `wait` vs `wait_for_exit` the only name difference.

## Key findings

- Near-perfect method correspondence with `cap.terminal.*` makes the ACP bridge for terminals a rename-only adapter.
- Capability gating in initialize matches CAP's `terminal.enabled` advertisement; a disabled terminal is a refused capability, not an error path.
- `session/update` notifications interleave with terminal management (per the method list), so output streaming shares the turn channel.

## Pros / strengths

- The 1:1 mapping de-risks the terminal half of the ACP bridge to near-zero design work.

## Cons / limitations / caveats

- No output paging: `terminal/output` returns the whole retained buffer every call, so tai must set outputByteLimit-aware retention itself.
- Buffer-retention semantics differ from CAP's 60s rule: release invalidates the ACP terminal id immediately.

## Relevance to tai

Terminal bridge is rename-only; full param shapes queued for Phase 5 reading.

## Changelog

| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-18 | Initial dossier created. |