Identify other agents we can support

[anantshri]

to name a few like

• zcode
• qwencode

and others. Help me by identifying all such tools.

[ai-anant]

🤖 Watchdog analysis

Issue: "Identify other agents we can support" — the maintenance backlog for this repo is a feature catalogue, not a bug report, so this is a research/guidance pass rather than a code fix.

What aidc currently supports

The five supported agents are wired through three places in the codebase (this is the full support surface for any new agent):

1. Image install — templates/devcontainer/Dockerfile.tmpl, RUN block at lines ~205–214. Every agent is installed as a native prebuilt binary via curl | bash, with a state dir mkdir'd and volume-mounted per agent (/home/vscode/.claude, .codex, .config/opencode, .cursor-agent, .grok).
2. Command dispatch — lib/aidc.sh top-level case at lines 83–99 (claude|codex|opencode|grok|cursor-agent) → aidc::cmd_<tool>() wrapper (lines 702–759) → aidc::run_tool (lines 875–934).
3. Runtime invocation — the second case "$tool" in run_tool (lines 900–922) maps each tool to its safe sandbox flags, then auto_sync_sessions pulls session transcripts back to the host.

PR #15 (open) refactors the image-install step into an opt-in AIDC_AGENTS loop with a per-agent case — any new agent should also be inserted into that list, not just the unconditional install block.

The two tools you named

qwencode → Qwen Code (qwen) — Alibaba Qwen's open-source terminal agent (repo QwenLM/qwen-code). Install: npm install -g @qwen-code/qwen-code, requires Node 20+; binary is qwen. It's a Gemini-CLI fork and talks to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint via OPENAI_API_KEY / OPENAI_BASE_URL / OPENAI_MODEL, so its credential plumbing mirrors codex. State dirs ~/.qwen / ~/.config/qwen. ⚠️ Chinese-model lineage (Qwen/Qwen3-Coder 480B) — flag vs. your non-Chinese-lineage preference for tool-calling. Well-documented and CLI-mature, so it's the easier of the two named tools to actually add.

zcode → ZCode (Z.ai, GLM-5.3) — the "official harness for GLM-5.3" from Z.ai. It is very early: as of a few days ago there is no stable standalone CLI (zcode isn't installable/scriptable yet — the Z.ai docs tool page and community confirm it's still an IDE/harness offering; the Reddit thread literally asks "is there a zcode cli?" and the answer is no). ⚠️ Also Chinese-model lineage (GLM/Zhipu). Recommendation: do not wire in support yet — there's no binary to install or invoke to test against. Revisit once Z.ai ships a zcode CLI; the aidc changes (below) will apply unchanged.

Candidate agents to add first (highest value, NICEST fit for aidc's Node-free image)

Agent	CLI	Install	Runtime deps	Fit
Gemini CLI	gemini	npm i -g @google/gemini-cli	Node 20+	High value, non-Chinese lineage (✓ your preference), free 1k req/day tier, Apache-2.0
Aider	aider	curl -LsSf https://aider.chat/install.sh | sh (or pipx/uv)	Python	Best fit for aidc today — curl installer → ~/.local/bin, Python already in aidc images; model-agnostic (works with Claude/OpenAI/Ollama)
GitHub Copilot CLI	copilot	npm i -g @github/copilot	Node	First-party, non-Chinese; needs a Copilot seat
Amp (Sourcegraph)	amp	npm i -g @sourcegraph/amp	Node	Strong terminal harness, non-Chinese
Amazon Kiro	kiro	npm/brew	Node	AWS-native, non-Chinese

The Node catch (important): aidc deliberately ships agents as native prebuilt binaries with no Node runtime, and PR #17 drops nodejs from the base image. Gemini CLI, Qwen Code, Copilot CLI and Amp all npm install -g ..., so they need a Node 20+ bootstrap inside the container — a real departure from aidc's current "no Node dependency" invariant. Aider is the outlier that fits the existing model (curl installer → ~/.local/bin, Python already present). So:

• Easiest quick win with zero architectural change: Aider.
• Biggest value bump, needs a Node bootstrap: Gemini CLI — worth it given your lineage preference and free tier.

Concrete steps to add any one agent (e.g. gemini)

1. templates/devcontainer/Dockerfile.tmpl (~lines 205–214): add a state dir mkdir -p /home/vscode/.gemini and the installer line. For Node-based agents, first install Node 20+ (either add it to the image or gate it behind the AIDC_AGENTS opt-in so non-Node users keep the slim image — this is the design decision to make).
2. lib/aidc.sh top case (lines 83–99): add gemini) aidc::cmd_gemini "$@" ;;.
3. Add wrapper aidc::cmd_gemini() { aidc::run_tool "gemini" "" "$@"; }.
4. run_tool case (lines 900–922): add gemini) command=("gemini");; (plus any sandbox-flag policy, mirroring the existing per-tool comments about isolation being handled by the container).
5. If PR feat: make coding-agent installs opt-in per project (AIDC_AGENTS) #15 is merged, add gemini to the AIDC_AGENTS expansion list in Dockerfile.tmpl and the run_tool AIDC_AGENTS seeding.
6. Extend auto_sync_sessions so gemini transcripts sync back to /insights like the other agents.
7. Add gemini to the CLI usage block in lib/aidc.sh (~lines 133–141), the README agent list, and docs/install.md.

Verify with bash -n lib/aidc.sh, shellcheck -x lib/aidc.sh, .github/scripts/bash-compat-check.sh, and a real docker build that the agent lands in ~/.local/bin (or its npm bin dir).

PR status

No open PR addresses this issue. Open PRs in cyfinoid/aidc (#14–#23) are unrelated (image size, opt-in toolchains/agents, .devcontainer handling, transcript path sync). Note PR #15 (AIDC_AGENTS) is the relevant foundation each new agent should plug into — nothing already implements Qwen Code / ZCode / Gemini support. So no duplicate PR was opened here: this issue is a catalogue/design task, not a bounded code fix, and the right next step is to pick the agents (suggest: Aider first, Gemini CLI after a deliberate Node-bootstrap decision) and file per-agent implementation issues/PRs.

Verification

Research-only run — no code changed. Grounding for the two named tools and the candidate list came from: QwenLM/qwen-code npm/repo docs, zcode.z.ai docs + Z.ai devpack tool page (GLM-5.3, no mature CLI), Gemini CLI npm/docs (@google/gemini-cli, Node 20+), aider.chat install docs, and the current aidc Dockerfile.tmpl + lib/aidc.sh source in this repo. Run bash -n + the repo's bash-compat check before landing any new-agent PR.