Orca CLI

Use this skill when the task should go through Orca's control plane rather than directly through git, shell PTYs, or ad hoc filesystem access.

When To Use

Use orca for:

• worktree orchestration inside a running Orca app
• updating the current worktree comment with meaningful progress checkpoints
• reading and replying to Orca-managed terminals
• stopping or waiting on Orca-managed terminals
• accessing repos known to Orca

Do not use orca when plain shell tools are simpler and Orca state does not matter.

Examples:

• creating one Orca worktree per GitHub issue
• updating the current worktree comment after a significant checkpoint, such as reproducing a bug, validating a fix, or handing off for review
• finding the Claude Code terminal for a worktree and replying to it
• checking which Orca worktrees have live terminal activity

Preconditions

• Prefer the public orca command first
• Orca editor/runtime should already be running, or the agent should start it with orca open
• Do not begin by inspecting Orca source files just to decide how to invoke the CLI. The first step is to check whether the installed orca command exists.
• Do not assume a generic shell environment variable proves the agent is "inside Orca". For normal agent flows, the public CLI is the supported surface, but avoid wasting a round trip on probe-only checks when a direct Orca action would answer the question.

First verify the public CLI is installed:

command -v orca

Then use the public command:

orca status --json

If the task is about Orca worktrees or Orca terminals, do this before any codebase exploration:

command -v orca
orca status --json

If the agent truly needs to confirm that the current directory is inside an Orca-managed worktree, use:

orca worktree current --json

If orca is not on PATH, say so explicitly and stop or ask the user to install/register the CLI before continuing.

Core Workflow

1. Confirm Orca runtime availability:

orca status --json

If Orca is not running yet:

orca open --json
orca status --json

2. Discover current Orca state:

orca worktree ps --json
orca terminal list --json

3. Resolve a target worktree or terminal handle.

4. Act through Orca:

• worktree create/set/rm
• terminal read/send/wait/stop

5. When the agent reaches a significant checkpoint in the current worktree, update the Orca worktree comment so the UI reflects the latest work-in-progress:

orca worktree set --worktree active --comment "reproduced auth failure with aws sts; testing credential-chain fix" --json

Why: the worktree comment is Orca's lightweight, agent-writable status field. Keeping it current gives the user an at-a-glance summary of what the agent most recently proved, changed, or is waiting on.

Command Surface

Repo

orca repo list --json
orca repo show --repo id:<repoId> --json
orca repo add --path /abs/repo --json
orca repo set-base-ref --repo id:<repoId> --ref origin/main --json
orca repo search-refs --repo id:<repoId> --query main --limit 10 --json

Worktree

orca worktree list --repo id:<repoId> --json
orca worktree ps --json
orca worktree current --json
orca worktree show --worktree id:<worktreeId> --json
orca worktree create --repo id:<repoId> --name my-task --issue 123 --comment "seed" --json
orca worktree set --worktree id:<worktreeId> --display-name "My Task" --json
orca worktree set --worktree active --comment "reproduced bug; collecting logs from staging" --json
orca worktree set --worktree active --comment "waiting on review" --json
orca worktree rm --worktree id:<worktreeId> --force --json

Worktree selectors supported in focused v1:

• id:<worktree-id>
• path:<absolute-path>
• branch:<branch-name>
• issue:<number>
• active / current to resolve the enclosing Orca-managed worktree from the shell cwd

Terminal

Use selectors to discover terminals, then use the returned handle for repeated live interaction.

orca terminal list --worktree id:<worktreeId> --json
orca terminal show --terminal <handle> --json
orca terminal read --terminal <handle> --json
orca terminal send --terminal <handle> --text "continue" --enter --json
orca terminal wait --terminal <handle> --for exit --timeout-ms 5000 --json
orca terminal stop --worktree id:<worktreeId> --json

Why: terminal handles are runtime-scoped and may go stale after reloads. If Orca returns terminal_handle_stale, reacquire a fresh handle with terminal list.

Agent Guidance

• If the user says to create/manage an Orca worktree, use orca worktree ..., not raw git worktree ....
• Treat Orca as the source of truth for Orca worktree and terminal tasks. Do not mix Orca-managed state with ad hoc git worktree commands unless Orca explicitly cannot perform the requested action.
• Prefer --json for all machine-driven use.
• Use worktree ps as the first summary view when many worktrees may exist.
• Use worktree current or --worktree active when the agent is already running inside the target worktree.
• Treat orca worktree set --worktree active --comment ... --json as a default coding-agent behavior whenever the agent reaches a meaningful checkpoint in the current Orca-managed worktree; the user does not need to explicitly ask for each update.
• Update the worktree comment at significant checkpoints, not every trivial command. Good checkpoints include reproducing a bug, confirming a hypothesis, starting a risky migration, finishing a meaningful implementation slice, switching from investigation to fix, or blocking on external input.
• Write comments as short status snapshots of the current state, for example debugging AWS CLI profile resolution, confirmed flaky test is caused by temp-dir race, or fix implemented; running integration tests.
• Prefer optimistic execution over probe-first flows for checkpoint updates: if orca is on PATH, call orca worktree set --worktree active --comment ... --json directly at the checkpoint instead of spending an extra cycle on orca worktree current.
• If that direct update fails because Orca is unavailable or the shell is not inside an Orca-managed worktree, continue the main task and treat the comment update as best-effort unless the user explicitly made Orca state part of the task.
• Use orca worktree current --json only when the agent actually needs the worktree identity for later logic, not as a preflight before every comment update.
• Orca only injects ORCA_WORKTREE_PATH-style variables for some setup-hook flows, so they are not a general detection contract for agents.
• Use terminal list to reacquire handles after Orca reloads.
• Use terminal read before terminal send unless the next input is obvious.
• Use terminal wait --for exit only when the task actually depends on process completion.
• Prefer Orca worktree selectors over hardcoded paths when Orca identity already exists.
• If the user asks for CLI UX feedback, test the public orca command first. Only inspect src/cli or use node out/cli/index.js if the public command is missing or the task is explicitly about implementation internals.
• If a command fails, prefer retrying with the public orca command before concluding the CLI is broken, unless the failure already came from orca itself.

Important Constraints

• Orca CLI only talks to a running Orca editor.
• Terminal handles are ephemeral and tied to the current Orca runtime.
• terminal wait in focused v1 supports only --for exit.
• Orca is the source of truth for worktree/terminal orchestration; do not duplicate that state with manual assumptions.
• The public orca command is the interface users experience. Agents should validate and use that surface, not repo-local implementation entrypoints.

References

See these docs in this repo when behavior is unclear:

• docs/orca-cli-focused-v1-status.md
• docs/orca-cli-v1-spec.md
• docs/orca-runtime-layer-design.md