Built-in Agents

AXIS ships with built-in support for every major AI coding agent that speaks the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), plus the native Claude Code and Codex CLIs.

Reference an agent by name in your axis.config.json:

{
  "agents": ["claude-code", "codex"]
}

Many agents are bring-your-own-key (BYOK) and accept several provider environment variables; those rows link to the agent's own provider docs.

Agents with Auto Install: yes are distributed as npm packages and AXIS will run them via npx --yes if the CLI is not already on your PATH. Agents with no ship through brew, cargo, uv, pip, or vendor installers, and must be installed manually before AXIS can run them.

Agent	Auto Install	Required Env Vars
`claude-code`	yes	`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` or fall back to a local `claude login` session — see below
`codex`	yes	`CODEX_API_KEY` or fall back to a local `codex login` session — see below
`claude-sdk`	yes	`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`
`codex-sdk`	yes	`OPENAI_API_KEY`
`gemini`	yes	`GEMINI_API_KEY`
`goose`	no	Supported provider keys
`opencode`	yes	Supported provider keys
`fast-agent`	no	Supported provider keys
`openhands`	no	Supported provider keys
`qwen-code`	yes	Supported provider keys
`kimi`	no	Supported provider keys
`mistral-vibe`	no	`MISTRAL_API_KEY`
`blackbox`	no	`BLACKBOX_API_KEY`
`stakpak`	no	Supported provider keys
`poolside`	no	`POOLSIDE_API_KEY`
`vtcode`	no	Supported provider keys
`cursor-agent`	no	`CURSOR_API_KEY`
`auggie`	yes	`AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH`
`factory-droid`	yes	`FACTORY_API_KEY`
`qoder`	no	`QODER_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN`
`cline`	yes	Supported provider keys
`kilo`	no	`KILO_API_KEY`
`kiro-cli`	no	`KIRO_API_KEY`
`copilot`	yes	`COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN`, `GH_TOKEN`, or `GITHUB_TOKEN`

Local CLI sessions

Setting an API key is the preferred way to authenticate. API keys make runs reproducible across machines, deterministic in CI, and unambiguous about which account is being billed. Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for claude-code, CODEX_API_KEY for codex, and so on.

When no API key is set, claude-code and codex will fall back to a local CLI login (claude login / codex login) if one is available on the machine running AXIS. This is convenient for local exploration on a laptop where you already use these CLIs — you don't have to mint and export an API key just to try a scenario.

Things to know about the fallback:

API key always wins. If the required env var is set, AXIS uses it and never touches your local session. The fallback only triggers when the env var is missing.
Usage bills against your subscription, not against an API key. That's the whole point — but it does mean a CI environment that happens to have a logged-in CLI session would silently consume seats from a personal plan. Always set the API key in CI.
macOS users may see a Keychain prompt the first time AXIS reads the "Claude Code-credentials" entry, since the lookup runs through /usr/bin/security rather than the claude binary that created it. Click Always Allow to authorize subsequent runs.
Only claude-code and codex support this fallback today. Other agents still require their configured env var.

Custom Agents

Not listed here? You can register any agent via the custom agent API.