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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.

Install

npm install @ade-dev/sdk — Node 22, then a 10-line client.

Quickstart

Open a thread, send a message, resume by key after a restart.

MCP servers

Inject your tools. Strict mode is enforced only on Claude — read the honesty table.

Chat UI

React components that render the conversation for your users.

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Packages

License: AGPL-3.0-only.

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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 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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Next

Install

Node 22, npm, Electron main, pinning a binary.

Threads

Send, steer, interrupt, switch models, export.