Android Studio Rabbit 2 brings Codex and Claude agents to stable

Google released Android Studio Rabbit 2 on October 28, bringing Bring Your Own Agent, or BYOA, to the stable channel. Developers can choose from more than 40 coding agents, including OpenAI Codex and Claude Agent, and connect their preferred assistant to the tools used to build and run Android apps.

BYOA first appeared in Canary on September 24. It uses the open Agent Client Protocol to connect agents with the IDE. Android Studio supplies the project graph, build setup and platform context; the agent can select relevant information for its task. Build diagnostics, Compose Previews and emulator controls become available within that workflow.

Agents can edit files, execute shell commands and run tests. Google describes granular permissions that allow routine actions while pausing riskier ones for approval. Long-running conversations and project instructions can persist. The company also describes handing work to another agent when the current provider’s quota runs out.

Authentication uses the selected provider’s account or an API key. Support for consumer and enterprise plans depends on the provider. The stable release notes say Android Studio’s built-in agent remains available at no extra charge. Rabbit 2 carries version number 2026.2.2, and its compatibility table lists Android Gradle plugin versions 7.1 through 9.5. Projects with an incompatible plugin require an update; older IDE versions remain available for existing projects.

After code generation, Change Review helps inspect the results inside the IDE. It produces a report of potential problems in pending agent changes or Git changes. A review can also begin with the /review command in agent chat, and developers can ask the agent to address issues identified in the report.

Reviews can cover uncommitted work and changes already in the Git log. After addressing recommended fixes, Create Walkthrough organizes related diff fragments across files into themes and prioritizes them.

Rabbit 2 also adds a skills manager for discovering, installing and managing procedural guidance. It gives developers granular control over the specialized workflows and procedural guidance supplied to an agent.

Skills bundle instructions and supporting material for specialized development work. They add current Android context and repeatable procedures to a model’s knowledge. Scripts, templates and reference documents can accompany the main instructions, reducing repeated attachments in prompts. Teams can package their own development patterns in shared folders. Android skills follow the open Agent Skills standard, allowing use with other compatible AI tools. Their structure and application can vary with the selected agent and development environment.

Android Studio’s documentation describes skills as expertise loaded on demand. The model checks a request against skill descriptions, then retrieves the relevant instructions and resources. Developers can also select a skill explicitly with @ in chat. This separates always-present project guidance from specialized material brought into a particular task.

Customized skills should be renamed to avoid being overwritten by updates. Each skill separates a description used for selection from its working instructions. Android Studio supports skill folders in a project or the home directory.

The XML-to-Compose Migration Assistant shown at the same event remains a Canary feature. Its agent agrees on scope, drafts a plan and converts layouts and associated code; a progress timeline and resumption points remain with the conversation. Google directs developers to stable Android Studio for BYOA and Change Review, and to Canary for the migration assistant.