ADE SDK

The ADE SDK is how a third-party app embeds ADE chat. Your process owns a slim ADE runtime as a child, talks to it over JSON-RPC, and presents chat as durable named threads. The runtime is a guest: isolated home, sync off, no machine-brain authority. It dies with your process. This is not ADE desktop, ADE Code, or personal chats in the ADE app. Those stay first-party. Use the SDK when your product needs an agent chat sidecar.

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Packages

Both packages are MIT. The runtime binary and ADE itself are AGPL-3.0-only, and an embedding exception lets a proprietary app ship an unmodified runtime binary. See License for the per-artifact table and the exact conditions.

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How it fits

The client downloads (or you pin) an ade binary, spawns ade runtime run --socket <path> --profile embedded, and exposes threads.open(key). Reopening the same key after a restart continues the conversation. doctor() reports the SDK version, the runtime version, the socket, and provider auth. Provider logins are not stored under the sidecar home. Claude / Codex / Cursor credentials stay in those tools’ own config homes. If the machine user can already run that provider in a terminal, the sidecar can too.

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What’s new in 0.5

@ade-dev/sdk 0.5.0, @ade-dev/chat-ui 0.5.0 and runtime 1.2.83 are available together. SDK 0.5.0 supports runtime >=1.2.82 <2.0.0. The lower bound did not move: nothing in 0.5.0 needs a new wire, so a host on runtime 1.2.82 keeps working. See Version compatibility.

• Attachment roots that fail the whole open. checkAttachmentRoot(path, home) and filterAttachmentRoots(list, home) test a root before you send it, so one bad entry no longer locks every chat. An identical list is not sent again. See Where a path may point.
• A host hook for removals. registerAdeIpc({ onThreadRemoved }) fires for every delete and archive the served client reports, whoever made it, so your chat list stays exact. It follows a client swapped per account as soon as the bridge serves a call. See Electron.
• A cost preference for new chats. models.defaultModel({ prefer }) and pickDefaultModel(models, { prefer }) rank a provider’s models yourself, so a host can start on Sonnet instead of the provider’s most expensive default. See pickDefaultModel.
• Less noise from an embedded runtime. Four lines an embedded runtime printed on every start — the role-ceiling sentence, its brain.role_ceiling_below_cto warning, and the two “could not bound runtime log” lines — are gone from runtime 1.2.83. An older runtime still prints them.
• Docs. ModelCatalogEntry.provider now points at isSupportedProvider; the retry and edit docs say the rollback does not cover the disk and how to find the files yourself; the activity-label docs now state that a bare MCP key is compared with the tool’s own name, with an example.

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What’s new in 0.4

@ade-dev/sdk 0.4.0, @ade-dev/chat-ui 0.4.0 and runtime 1.2.82 are available together. SDK 0.4.0 supports runtime >=1.2.82 <2.0.0. An older runtime still connects, and the features below that need 1.2.82 throw unsupported or do nothing. See Version compatibility.

• Retry and edit. thread.retry() and thread.editLast(text) run the last user message again, and the transcript shows it once. Claude and Codex. See Retry and edit.
• Links. onLinkClick on <AdeChat>, <Transcript>, <ProviderCard> and <ProviderCards>, so a host decides what opens and where. In Electron, pass it. See Links.
• Attachment roots. attachmentRoots lets a thread attach files from folders outside its cwd without a copy. The attachments guide now says how paths compare. See Where a path may point.
• Bridge. openOptions gets { exists, summary }, so a host can tell a resume from a create. allowThreadKey and allowModel can be async. thread.send options are filtered. threads.get, forget(key), and checkAdeBridge for a hand-copied preload. See Electron.
• Client. threads.get(key), models.onChange, models.defaultModel, pickDefaultModel, the threadLifecycle event, and final on restart. See Reference.
• Chat UI. Controlled draft, onSend, a render prop and threadRef on <AdeChat>; ThreadState.update, retry and editLast; a reload after a runtime restart or a retry. See Chat UI.
• Runtime. Codex no longer shows a computer_use tool call that never ends, and the Computer Use server is not started for a thread whose policy does not allow it. update({ title: null }) clears the title. --version reports the runtime’s own version. No canUseTool warning on every Claude turn. The doctor().runtime.version probe of the SDK also works on a 1.2.81 binary started from inside ADE.

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Breaking changes

• Refusals caused by a running turn (setModel, a reasoning update) now throw turn_in_flight, not invalid_option. Branch on turn_in_flight.
• window.ade from @ade-dev/sdk/electron/global is optional. createAdeIpcClient(window.ade) still compiles; code that reads window.ade.invoke directly needs a check.
• The restart event payload has a new final field, and ADE_CLIENT_EVENTS has threadLifecycle. A listener table typed on the old list must add it.

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What’s new in 0.3

@ade-dev/sdk 0.3.0 and @ade-dev/chat-ui 0.3.0 release together. SDK 0.3.0 supports runtime >=1.2.81 <2.0.0. See Version compatibility.

• Thread lifecycle. threads.delete, threads.archive, threads.unarchive, and thread.update() for a rename, reasoning effort or fast mode. ThreadSummary and the thread carry title, the resolved model with its display name, and updatedAt. See Threads.
• Attachments. type ("file" or "image", inferred when absent), so images reach the model as images. hydrate: false sends the path only. steer() takes attachments. See Attachments.
• Paged history. thread.historyPage(). See History.
• Credentials that change. MCP header values are no longer stored. refresh.mcpServers, thread.updateMcpServers() and the mcpHeaders callback supply current tokens. See MCP servers.
• Codex MCP approvals. The permission policy now judges Codex MCP tool calls, and approve() answers them. approvalTimeoutMs lets the SDK decline an approval that nobody answers. See Permissions.
• Runtime exits. client.on("exit" | "transport" | "restart"), a synthetic error status on each live thread, and opt-in autoRestart. See Runtime.
• Electron bridge. The renderer no longer configures threads: an openOptions hook in main decides, or only four fields cross. allowModel, threads.list and the lifecycle calls over IPC, a client getter, @ade-dev/sdk/electron/global, and a copy-paste sandboxed preload. See Electron.
• Packaging. resolvePackagedRuntime() and doctor().runtime.source: "packaged". See Bundling.
• Chat UI. Composer rail slots and controlled attachments on <AdeChat>, a windowed transcript, tool identity and tool-result slots. See Chat UI.

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Breaking changes

• The Electron bridge drops every renderer threads.open option except provider, model, title and reasoningEffort, unless you set openOptions. See What a renderer may send.
• When the runtime lost a session, the recreate uses the stored record first, not the call’s options. See Threads.
• setModel() returns displayName and capabilities beside modelId, provider and model. A test that compares the whole result with toEqual must change.

thread.retry() and thread.editLast() are not in 0.3. They are in 0.4.

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What this is not

• Not a hosted ADE cloud API. The sidecar runs on the same machine as your app.
• Not ADE desktop IPC. The SDK speaks the machine JSON-RPC surface.
• Not a way to drive lanes, PRs, or the Work tab from a third-party renderer.

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