The agent-shell ecosystem just got a lot more crowded. Version 0.87, released in mid-October 2026, officially integrates OpenClaw and JetBrains Junie into the Emacs-native AI interface. This brings the total count of supported agents to 23, a significant leap from the two (Claude and Gemini) supported at the project's inception just over a year ago. For those of us living in Emacs, this means vendor-neutral access to the hottest new agents without ever leaving our familiar buffers or bindings.

Expanding the Agent Roster

The addition of OpenClaw (PR #878 by @jtmoulia) and Junie (PR #847 by @thanhvg) marks a shift in agent-shell's strategy. It is no longer just a wrapper for the big two; it is becoming the universal socket for the entire AI agent landscape. Users can now invoke these new agents directly via M-x agent-shell-openclaw-start-agent or M-x agent-shell-junie-start-agent. The project's ability to speak to 23 distinct agents via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) demonstrates that the protocol is gaining traction as a de facto standard for agent interoperability.

Smarter Queueing and Visual Feedback

One of the most practical improvements for power users is the new animated prompt system. Tying into the ability to queue prompts from the persistent shell, the prompt now visually indicates when an agent is busy. This prevents accidental double-submissions and makes the state of the session obvious at a glance. Furthermore, the new agent-shell-prompt-queue-merge setting (enabled by default) joins pending prompts into a single turn. This solves the old problem where agents would act on the first queued instruction before reading the follow-up, ensuring context is preserved for complex, multi-step requests.

Performance and Polish

While the new features grab headlines, the bulk of the 125 commits shipped in this release focused on stabilization. The backlog has dropped to four open issues, the lowest since the project's first week. Notable fixes include limiting long tool output lines to prevent buffer lag (#844), ensuring streamed tables keep their alignment (#868), and fixing severe cursor lag from large collapsed outputs (#839). The project also addressed edge cases in TRAMP users, ensuring shell command output runs in the correct directory (#879).

Key Takeaways

  • agent-shell now supports 23 agents, including OpenClaw and JetBrains Junie.
  • Queue merging (agent-shell-prompt-queue-merge) prevents agents from acting on incomplete instruction sets.
  • Animated prompts provide immediate visual feedback on agent status and queue states.
  • The project backlog has hit a historic low of 4 open issues, signaling a maturation in stability.
  • Customizable busy indicators allow users to choose between animated frames, static text, or custom functions.

The Bottom Line

agent-shell is rapidly becoming the indispensable glue for AI-assisted Emacs workflows. By supporting OpenClaw and maintaining a vendor-neutral stance, it proves that the future of AI agents isn't in a single vendor's terminal, but in a unified, customizable interface that respects the user's existing environment.