Agent Control Plane
ACP is the Agent Control Plane - a distributed agent scheduler optimized for simplicity, clarity, and control. It is designed for outer-loop agents that run without supervision, and make asynchronous tool calls like requesting human feedback on key o
What is Agent Control Plane?
Agent Control Plane is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to acp is the agent control plane - a distributed agent scheduler optimized for simplicity, clarity, and control. it is designed for outer-loop agents that run without supervision, and make asynchronous ...
ACP is the Agent Control Plane - a distributed agent scheduler optimized for simplicity, clarity, and control. It is designed for outer-loop agents that run without supervision, and make asynchronous tool calls like requesting human feedback on key o
This server falls under the Coding Agents category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- ACP is the Agent Control Plane - a distributed agent schedul
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx agentcontrolplaneConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Agent Control Plane
Agent Control Plane (ACP) is a cloud-native Kubernetes operator for orchestrating long-running AI agents that need to make asynchronous tool calls, delegate work to sub-agents, or pause execution for human approval. Built on 12-factor-agent principles, ACP defines first-class Kubernetes custom resources (LLM, Agent, Task, ToolCall) so agent infrastructure is version-controlled and operated like any other Kubernetes workload. Teams use it to build production outer-loop agents that run unsupervised while preserving durable execution guarantees and human-in-the-loop checkpoints.
Prerequisites
- kubectl installed and configured against a Kubernetes cluster
- kind installed for local cluster setup (or an existing cluster)
- Docker installed for building container images
- An OpenAI API key (or another supported LLM provider key) stored as a Kubernetes secret
Create a local Kubernetes cluster
Use kind to spin up a local cluster for development and testing ACP.
kind create clusterStore your LLM API key as a Kubernetes secret
Create a secret that ACP's LLM resource will reference for authentication.
kubectl create secret generic openai \
--from-literal=OPENAI_API_KEY=$OPENAI_API_KEY \
--namespace=defaultDeploy the ACP operator
Apply the latest ACP release manifest. This installs the operator, CRDs, and all required components into your cluster.
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/humanlayer/agentcontrolplane/refs/heads/main/acp/config/release/latest.yamlDefine an LLM resource
Create a Kubernetes LLM custom resource that points to your model and API key secret.
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: acp.humanlayer.dev/v1alpha1
kind: LLM
metadata:
name: gpt-4o
spec:
provider: openai
parameters:
model: gpt-4o
apiKeyFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: openai
key: OPENAI_API_KEY
EOFCreate an Agent and run a Task
Define an Agent resource with a system prompt and then submit a Task to trigger execution.
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: acp.humanlayer.dev/v1alpha1
kind: Agent
metadata:
name: my-agent
spec:
llmRef:
name: gpt-4o
systemPrompt: "You are a helpful assistant."
EOF
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: acp.humanlayer.dev/v1alpha1
kind: Task
metadata:
name: my-task
spec:
agentRef:
name: my-agent
userMessage: "Summarize the latest Kubernetes release notes"
EOFWatch agent execution events
Stream Kubernetes events to observe task progress and tool calls in real time.
kubectl get events --watchAgent Control Plane Examples
Client configuration
Claude Desktop MCP configuration for connecting to Agent Control Plane via npx.
{
"mcpServers": {
"agentcontrolplane": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["agentcontrolplane"],
"env": {
"OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-..."
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example prompts for working with Agent Control Plane through an AI assistant.
- "Create an ACP agent definition for a web research agent that summarizes URLs"
- "Set up a human-in-the-loop approval step before any agent sends an email"
- "Show me how to delegate from a parent agent to a sub-agent in ACP"
- "Write an ACP Task manifest that runs a data pipeline and waits for human review"Troubleshooting Agent Control Plane
CRD apply fails with 'no matches for kind LLM'
The CRDs may not have been installed. Apply them separately: kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/humanlayer/agentcontrolplane/refs/heads/main/acp/config/release/latest-crd.yaml and wait for them to become established before applying agent resources.
Task stuck in Pending state
Check the ACP operator pod logs: kubectl logs -n acp-system -l control-plane=controller-manager. Also verify the LLM resource status is Ready and the referenced secret exists in the same namespace.
kind cluster cannot pull ACP operator image
Ensure Docker is running and your machine has internet access. If behind a proxy, configure Docker's daemon.json with proxy settings. You can also pre-pull and load the image: docker pull <image> && kind load docker-image <image>.
Frequently Asked Questions about Agent Control Plane
What is Agent Control Plane?
Agent Control Plane is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that acp is the agent control plane - a distributed agent scheduler optimized for simplicity, clarity, and control. it is designed for outer-loop agents that run without supervision, and make asynchronous tool calls like requesting human feedback on key o It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Agent Control Plane?
Follow the installation instructions on the Agent Control Plane GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Agent Control Plane?
Agent Control Plane works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Agent Control Plane free to use?
Yes, Agent Control Plane is open source and available under the NOASSERTION license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Quick Config Preview
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