elizacp

A classic Eliza chatbot implemented as an ACP (Agent-Client Protocol) agent.

Overview

Elizacp provides a simple, predictable agent implementation that's useful for:

• Testing ACP clients - Lightweight agent with deterministic pattern-based responses
• Protocol development - Verify ACP implementations without heavy AI infrastructure
• Learning ACP - Clean example of implementing the Agent-Client Protocol

Features

• Classic Eliza patterns - Pattern matching and reflection-based responses
• Full ACP support - Session management, initialization, and prompt handling
• Per-session state - Each session maintains its own Eliza instance
• Extensible patterns - Easy to add new response patterns (including future tool use triggers)

Usage

Running the agent

# Build and run
cargo run -p elizacp

# With debug logging
cargo run -p elizacp -- --debug

The agent communicates over stdin/stdout using JSON-RPC, following the ACP specification.

Testing with an ACP client

Elizacp responds to:

1. Initialize requests - Returns capabilities
2. New/Load session requests - Creates session state
3. Prompt requests - Responds with Eliza-style conversational replies

Example conversation:

User: Hello
Eliza: Hello. How are you feeling today?

User: I am sad
Eliza: Do you often feel sad?

User: I feel worried about my father
Eliza: Tell me more about your family.

Implementation

• eliza.rs - Pattern matching engine with classic Eliza responses
• main.rs - ACP agent implementation over stdio

Architecture

The agent maintains a HashMap<SessionId, Eliza> to track per-session state. Each session gets its own Eliza instance with independent conversation state.

Future Extensions

The pattern database structure is designed to support:

• Tool use triggers (e.g., "what's the weather" → tool call)
• Custom response patterns
• Conversation history tracking
• Multi-turn context awareness