page:docs-user-guide-reference-adapter-types
Adapter Types: the full taxonomy reference
Docs(../index.md) › Reference(./index.md) › Adapter Types
Docs › Reference › Adapter Types
Adapter Types: the full taxonomy
**"Adapters" is a FAMILY, not one thing.** There are 20 adapter package directories under packages/adapters/, each with a distinct responsibility. This page enumerates all of them — what each one is and where it is used — so you can reason about the family precisely instead of treating "adapters" as a single black box.
The runtime story lives in the Adapters feature guide; the host-side command surface lives in the Adapters CLI reference; the introductory tour lives in the adapters ecosystem page. This page is the **enumeration**.
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On this page
- Adapters is a family, not one thing
- The 20 adapter types
- The umbrella package
- Honest notes on thin packages
- Next steps
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Adapters is a family, not one thing
Each adapter package isolates one concern. Spawning a session, normalizing hooks across harnesses, bridging model providers, parking a durable breakpoint, and compiling a plugin manifest are all *different jobs* — and each lives in its own package so it can evolve independently. The unifying idea: every integration surface is defined once (in the Atlas catalog) and multiplexed to many targets through generated code. The family keeps its name because it multiplexes for **all** agents, not just genty.
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The 20 adapter types
| # | Subdir | Package | What it is | Where used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | triggers/ | @a5c-ai/triggers-adapter | "Trigger glue for running any coding agent from CI." Normalizes GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket/webhook payloads into one event shape, enriches GitHub events (changed files, diffs), and evaluates compact trigger queries before launching adapters. Bin triggers (evaluate, enrich). | **CI / GitHub Actions entrypoint.** Reusable action at packages/adapters/triggers/action.yml; invocation modes non-interactive / bridged-hooks / bridged-interactive. Referenced by many workflows (agent-dispatch, agent-review-dispatch, issue-triage-dispatch, …). |
| 2 | extensions/ | @a5c-ai/extensions-adapter | "Cross-harness plugin compiler — compiles a single plugin.json manifest into 9 AI coding agent plugin formats." CLI compile / validate / init / list-targets. | Compiles the unified plugin source (plugins/babysitter-unified) into per-harness bundles in CI. Targets: claude-code, codex, cursor, gemini, github-copilot, pi, oh-my-pi, opencode, openclaw. |
| 3 | config/ | @a5c-ai/config-adapter | Install, config, auth, and **host-detection** logic (extracted from adapters-cli). | Used by the adapters launcher/CLI to install agents and detect the host environment. |
| 4 | launch/ | @a5c-ai/launch-adapter | Spawn/lifecycle orchestration, **PTY bridge**, signal handling, completion engine (extracted from adapters-cli). | The runtime that actually spawns a harness session (adapters launch, --with-proxy-if-needed). |
| 5 | channels/ | @a5c-ai/channels-adapter | An MCP-server mini-framework turning external systems (GitHub/Jira/webhooks) into a Claude Code **channel** via declarative YAML: polling, dedup, filters, opaque HMAC reply relay, per-event session spawning. | Connects external event sources to agent sessions; backed by @a5c-ai/adapters for session spawning. |
| 6 | codecs/ | @a5c-ai/adapters-codecs | "Built-in agent adapters" — the per-harness codec implementations: claude, claude-agent-sdk, codex, codex-sdk, codex-websocket, gemini, copilot, cursor, opencode, opencode-http, pi, pi-sdk, omp, openclaw, hermes, amp, droid, qwen, plus remote adapters. | The concrete harness drivers used by the dispatch layer. |
| 7 | hooks/ | @a5c-ai/hooks-adapter-cli (cli) · @a5c-ai/hooks-adapter-core (core) | "Universal hooks proxy system" normalizing lifecycle hooks across 9 harnesses into a single canonical event model. Core defines canonical schemas, the session store, and a merge engine for concurrent state. | The **MANDATORY-STOP / lifecycle enforcement** layer that makes obedience work cross-harness. Plugin hooks shell out to the global @a5c-ai/hooks-adapter-cli. |
| 8 | gateway/ | @a5c-ai/adapters-gateway | "Gateway package for remote and browser-facing adapters surfaces." GatewayConfig + createGateway(config) start/stop handle; per the v6 announcement the gateway server handles auth, cloud bootstrap, and workspace inventory. | Remote/browser access to adapters sessions; consumed by webui/cloud surfaces. |
| 9 | proxy/ | adapters-proxy (Python) | A lightweight Python service bridging LLM **transport protocols** via LiteLLM — accept one wire format (Anthropic / OpenAI-Responses / Google GenerateContent) and forward to any of **140+ providers** (Bedrock, Vertex, Ollama, Groq, …). | Spawned on demand by adapters launch --with-proxy-if-needed (or run persistently) to free vendor-locked harnesses from a single backend. |
| 10 | transport/ | @a5c-ai/transport-adapter | "Published transport/proxy runtime seam used by the adapters launcher and related runtime consumers." | The runtime seam the launcher uses to bridge harness ↔ proxy/transport; the tools adapter builds on its codecs. |
| 11 | observability/ | @a5c-ai/adapters-observability | "Structured logging and telemetry primitives for adapters." | Logging / telemetry across the adapters runtime. |
| 12 | harness-mock/ | @a5c-ai/adapters-harness-mock | "Mock harness simulator for testing adapters — simulates claude-code, codex, and other CLI harnesses." Subprocess / SDK / HTTP / WebSocket mocks. | Test fixtures for adapters/codecs (mocks were moved out of codecs into this package). |
| 13 | core/ | @a5c-ai/comm-adapter | "Agent communication adapter — event streaming, hooks, sessions." The public Node core runtime package. | Foundation re-exported by @a5c-ai/adapters; event/session/hook plumbing. |
| 14 | cli/ | @a5c-ai/adapters-cli | "CLI runtime for adapters" — the adapters command (adapters install <agent>, adapters launch, …). | The user-facing adapters CLI; canonical agent-install path. See Adapters CLI reference. |
| 15 | sdk/ | @a5c-ai/adapters | "Unified dispatch layer for local CLI-based AI coding agents." Meta-package re-exporting comm-adapter + codecs + cli. | The convenient one-install entry for the whole family; the "agent multiplexer" in the stack. |
| 16 | tasks/ | @a5c-ai/tasks-adapter | "Serverless breakpoint multiplexing system with pluggable backends and cryptographic signing"; the README calls it a "breakpoint routing library, MCP server, and CLI for responder-driven review flows." This is the v6 **Breakpoints Adapter** (former breakpoints-pro). Backends: GitHub Issues (durable) and server-based. | The durable, serverless-ready **human-in-the-loop breakpoint** mechanism — survives cold starts; how a process pauses for human approval. See Breakpoints. |
| 17 | tools/ | @a5c-ai/tools-adapter | "Tool lifecycle layer: registry, dispatch, schema translation, hook bridging on top of transport-adapter codecs." ToolRegistry, ToolDispatcher (glob/policy mapping), schema translation, ToolHookBridge (PreToolUse / PostToolUse). | Tool resolution + translation between harnesses; bridges tool dispatch to the hooks lifecycle. |
| 18 | skills/ | _(no package.json)_ | Migrated skills directory; currently holds the single integrate-harness skill. | Repo skill assets for the adapters workspace. **(Thin — a single skill present.)** |
| 19 | processes/ | _(no package.json)_ | Imported .a5c/processes workflows & plans (e.g. advanced-uis-*, babysitter-parity.js). | Babysitter process definitions used to build/extend the adapters/UI surfaces. |
| 20 | docker/ | _(no package.json)_ | Migrated Docker assets — Dockerfile.adapters-cli, e2e/ compose setup. | Containerized adapters-cli + E2E compose for the family. |
A
meta/directory also exists (family-level docs/config/GitHub metadata migrated from the old standalone adapters repo). It is repo plumbing rather than a 21st adapter type, so it is noted here for completeness only.
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The umbrella package
@a5c-ai/adapters (#15, the sdk/ directory) re-exports comm-adapter (#13), adapters-codecs (#6), and adapters-cli (#14). It is the one-install front door for the family. The core/, cli/, sdk/, proxy/, tasks/, and harness-mock/ packages were consolidated from a formerly standalone adapters repository.
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Honest notes on thin packages
A few entries are deliberately marked thin so this page does not overstate the family:
skills/(#18) currently contains a single skill (integrate-harness).processes/,docker/(#19, #20) are migrated asset directories, not published npm packages (nopackage.json).gateway/(#8) wording ("package … for remote and browser-facing surfaces") suggests a partial/scaffold surface relative to the runtime packages.
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Next steps
- **The runtime story:** Adapters feature guide
- **The command surface:** Adapters CLI reference
- **The introductory tour:** adapters ecosystem page
- **Where it sits in the whole:** Architecture & How It Fits Together