* fix(skills): keep computer-use off filesystem and shell tasks
STA-7615: "On my desktop create a folder" was matching computer-use because
discovery copy said OS/window-level and neighboring skills advertised desktop UI.
Scope the trigger to visible GUI with no CLI path, and exclude files/folders/git/shell.
* fix(skills): prefer programmatic paths over computer-use
State the last-resort rule in discovery copy instead of enumerating
files/folders/git/shell. computer-use prefers shell, filesystem, git, HTTP,
CLIs, and Playwright/CDP; neighboring skills route to Computer Use only when
a visible window needs GUI control those cannot do.
* fix(skills): stop advertising computer-use from orchestration
Orchestration coordinates workers; it does not drive a GUI. Drop Computer Use
and Playwright/embedded-browser routing from its discovery description so
those tools are not pulled in from a coordination skill.
* fix(skills): drop Playwright from orca-cli discovery
orca-cli should not prescribe Playwright or CDP. Those tools may not be
installed, and page automation is not this skill's job.
* fix(skills): drop the page-only ban from computer-use discovery
Page automation is a preference, not a prohibition. If Playwright or CDP is
not available, a visible browser window is valid Computer Use. Keep the
hard split for Orca's embedded browser (`orca-cli`) only.
* skills: rewrite the seven non-orchestration guides to one outcome-first standard
Every guide leads with Result / Done / Safe failure, states conditions instead of case lists, keeps one done bar and one autonomy envelope, and loads references at the point of use via `skills get <topic> --full`. orca-cli drops from 424 to 260 always-loaded lines with three references; orca-per-workspace-env from 794 to 397 with five.
Defects fixed in shipped guides: `emulator camera` (no such command), iOS `permissions` (backend refuses it), Android pane described as in development, `relayGracePeriodSeconds: 0` documented as immediate teardown (it is unbounded), doctor `ok: true` hiding `warn`, an SSH exemplar setting both `jumpHost` and `proxyCommand`, a provisioned-root fetch from `origin`, and the Linear unconfirmed-write rule keyed on four verbs when ten emit it.
The resolver ladder, placeholder rule, and older-binary fallback shared by every installable SKILL.md now come from one skill-stubs/_shared/cli-resolution.md fragment composed by the generator, which also bundles per-guide references into --full. New guards: every ORCA invocation and flag resolves against COMMAND_SPECS, descriptions carry no angle-bracket tokens, reference routing is checked both ways, and an always-loaded size ratchet (300 lines) that guides may leave but never join.
* skills: address review on the SSH recipe and the parity guard
- ssh-host create script: route the bootstrap ssh through the chosen jump host or proxy command, refuse both at once, use StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new instead of a blind ssh-keyscan append, and pass gh_token/project_root/repo_url/repo_ref to the remote bash via printf %q so a quote in a value cannot break out of the command.
- per-workspace-env envelope: the step-10 workspace test the user asked for is no longer forbidden by the same paragraph.
- linear guides: name the full verb, ORCA linear list-issues.
- parity guard: a prefix reference such as ORCA linear --help or ORCA emulator --webcam now has its flags checked against every command under that prefix; only an exact path or an explicit ... was checked before.
* skills: tighten prose in the seven rewritten guides
Shorter outcome spines, one idea per sentence, no restated rationale after a rule. No rule, command, or pinned phrase changes; 47 net lines fewer across the guides and references.
* skills: route orca-cli and per-workspace-env gates through --reference
Both guides told agents to load --full at a gate because the per-reference
selector did not exist when they were written. Now that main serves
`skills get <topic> --reference references/<file>.md`, load only the
named file and keep --full as the fallback for an older CLI, matching the
orchestration kernel.
* skills: drop outcome-spine boilerplate from the CLI-wrapper guides
The Result/Done/Safe-failure preambles and Next Action closers restated
rules the body already carries. Agents stop fine without them, and for
a CLI wrapper the command surface is the guide. Keeps the one substantive
rule computer-use's Done block added (never report unverified as success)
inside Action Rules. orchestration and per-workspace-env keep theirs:
those are multi-step workflows where the done bar is load-bearing.
(cherry picked from commit 44a74baf73)
* skills: trim the guides and stubs to what agents actually need
- Drop the Result/Done/Safe-failure preambles and Next Action closers from
the six CLI-wrapper guides; the one substantive rule (never report an
unverified computer-use action as success) moves into Action Rules.
- Drop the 'guide may be stale, trust --help' lines: the guide is served by
the binary that runs the commands, so it cannot be stale relative to it.
- Drop the status --json / open --json preflight from every guide; the stub
no-guessing paragraph now says to start Orca only when a command reports
it is not running.
- Cut the ORCA placeholder paragraph in each guide to one line that points
back at the stub's resolution.
- Trim the orchestration, orca-cli, and computer-use descriptions to trigger
phrases plus one line of scope.
- Remove the older-binary fallback section from every stub (and its two
shared blocks); a binary without skills get gets one sentence.
- Remove the guide size ratchet test.
* skills: apply independent review cleanup
* skills: clarify guide loading and Linear command discovery
* skills: harden environment recipe examples
* test: complete branch rename journal doubles
* skills: clarify custom Codex launch and refresh model example
* test: deduplicate journal fix now present on main
<!-- orca-pr-loc -->
<!-- Programmatic LoC summary. Do not edit by hand; rewritten on every commit. -->
| | Files | Added | Deleted | Net |
| :--- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Test | 225 | $\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$21666 | $\color{#cf222e}{\Huge{\mathbf{−}}}$2820 | $\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$18846 |
| Prod | 348 | $\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$17107 | $\color{#cf222e}{\Huge{\mathbf{−}}}$4706 | $\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$12401 |
<!-- /orca-pr-loc -->
## ELI5
Orca now treats orchestration like a durable control plane instead of inferring success from terminal keystrokes. Agents can tell whether a prompt was accepted or a turn started, replay an ambiguous request without sending twice, and recover coordinator mail after a crash. Completed workers can be inspected, released, or retained, and their panes no longer auto-resume as if the work were still running.
## What changed
- **Run receipts** from `run-create/use/current/show/list` are the row without routing plumbing (`home_database`, `coordinator_pane_key`) and without the duplicate `binding` object.
- **`terminal send` receipts are honest and idempotent.** `input_accepted` and `turn_started` are the only stages; `--wait-submit` observes without resending; `--retry-request <uuid>` replays the exact request against the same process incarnation. A transport timeout keeps the retry ID; only a different runtime answering strips it. Value-less or non-UUID `--retry-request` is rejected on the CLI and the SSH shim.
- **Mailbox delivery is committed before wakeup.** Pointer writes are staged in the DB before any PTY byte, replayed once after restart, and never emit a naked Enter. The watermark that parks concurrent deliveries is released with the DB reservation. Restart rescans pointer-pending and `dispatch:` mailboxes.
- **Lifecycle is a guarded transition graph** (`lifecycle-transition.ts`) with a table-driven test over every caller edge. Task reopen/overturn stays in the public contract. A PTY exit during `worker-stop` is the stop succeeding, not a failure.
- **Worker lifecycle CLI:** `worker-start` (`--spec` creates Task + attempt in one call), `worker-show`, `worker-read` (provider transcript first, bounded terminal fallback with a typed reason, local/WSL/SSH), `worker-stop`, `worker-abandon`, `worker-release`, `worker-retain`, `worker-list` (rowid-fenced pagination, fleet liveness, `attention`, literal `nextAction`).
- **Release is an explicit ownership table** (`decideWorkerTerminalRelease`): only an `owned` resource can be settled, the archive is mandatory where reachable, and an owner whose process is proven exited can always get out of `retained` via `archive_status: unavailable`. User-taken-over, external, and transferred panes stay retained.
- **Settled-worker resume fence** (folds in #17651): a settled dispatch whose pane is still open is fenced at settlement, on stop/abandon/exit, and at startup; lifted on release, retain, takeover, and pane reuse.
- **Liveness is `live` / `unverifiable` / `exited` only**, from execution-host evidence. Fleet projection reads the evidence clock, not the relay delivery clock. A host-certified exit outranks the worker's settled state. `unverifiable` never authorizes stop, abandon, retry, or release, in code or in the guide.
- **Federation:** structured reads negotiate by `method_not_found` so every shipped host keeps transcript-first output; exited remote workers are closed before being reported closed; epoch fencing holds across peer restart, downgrade, and pairing rotation; no per-second forced capability probe.
- **Schema v35:** repairs databases stamped v34 by the pre-fix branch (mailbox_handle default, index predicates), drops the write-only `lifecycle_transition_receipts` ledger and five never-read v31 identity columns.
- **Schema v36:** `dispatch:<id>` mailboxes get a real consumer generation on `dispatch_contexts` and `remote_dispatch_attachments`, bumped and fenced in the same transaction on every re-attach (manual inject, worker-start, federated attach). A stale worker whose Dispatch moved to another process now gets `consumer_fenced` instead of silently acking the new worker's Delivery. Run mailboxes already worked this way.
- **Schema v37:** `dispatch_contexts` records its creator (`creator_handle`, `creator_pane_key`), so a coordinator's context-only self-dispatch is bookkeeping rather than a nesting parent; before this, one self-dispatch made every later `worker-start` from that coordinator fail the depth cap. Pre-v37 rows keep counting (fails closed).
- **Dispatch-mailbox ownership is checked, not inferred.** A `check` from a process whose pane no longer holds the Dispatch, or whose last Attempt was abandoned/failed and moved to another terminal, gets `consumer_fenced` instead of an empty inbox that reads as "no mail yet". `--peek`/`--all` stay readable. A paneless caller still gets `stable_pane_required` with the rebind recovery.
- **Liveness certification is stricter:** a `process_exited` stage whose termination reason is `unknown` (a stop that was issued but never observed) projects `unverifiable`, not `exited`. Federated `worker-show` carries the execution host's verdict and host kind instead of a local guess. A live, ready worker with nothing pending has `nextAction: none` rather than pointing at the `worker-show` that produced it.
- **Wire:** `workerShow` keeps `dispatch.task_id` next to `taskId` for shipped CLIs. `ask --json` uses the standard `{ok, result}` envelope like every sibling verb.
- **Migration start-version detection** treats the two v32 recovery columns as versioned. Before this, every shipped database stamped below 32 resolved to the v6 floor and replayed the whole chain (the v23 backfill synthesized 68 phantom retained workers on a real v30 profile). Verified on a copy of a real 62 MB v30 profile: starts at 30, no row delta, integrity ok, 11 ms.
- **Skill guide** rewritten as a ≤200-line kernel plus seven references, to the outcome-first standard (Result / Done / Safe failure first, conditions not case lists, one done bar, references loaded at the point of use). The canonical loop uses `worker-start --spec`, names `worker-list` for completion accounting, documents `--retry-request` / `request-show` / `--wait-submit`, and requires positive evidence before any stall action. The other seven guides get the same treatment in #18724, split out so this PR stays orchestration-only.
- **`rpc/methods/orchestration-*`** (126 flat files) regrouped into `orchestration/{worker,federation,messaging,runs,gates}/`.
## Why
User reports showed the same boundary failures: false `agent_prompt_stalled` causing duplicate sends (#15180), coordinators unable to trust screen scrapes, cold-parked terminals receiving a pointer without the submit, settled workers accumulating as live tabs and auto-resuming after restart, and no way to tell a stalled worker from a working one.
## Linked issues
Fixes#15180. Fixes#17935 (orchestration skill description is 866 characters; a guard now caps every bundled skill at 1,024). Supersedes #17651 (fence folded in). Advances #16660, #16522, #14907, #13047.
## Review record
This PR was reviewed adversarially after revival: eight independent lenses (lifecycle, mailbox, send, worker, federation, transcript, complexity, live ergonomics), each required to prove findings with a failing test. That produced 16 proven blockers, all fixed with red-then-green regression tests, followed by two re-review rounds and a third fix wave that caught 3 regressions introduced by the fixes and 7 fixes that missed their target; all closed. A final pass (five lenses incl. a live built-runtime smoke, then a re-review of the fix wave) found and fixed seven more, chiefly the stale-worker mailbox steal, the self-dispatch depth wedge, and the unproven-exit certification. Three independent Codex (gpt-6-astra) passes followed: the first found nothing new, the second found and fixed 3 defects (task-status reachability, WSL-local host classification, peer-capability epoch), the third found and fixed 6 (production PTY controller never installed settled writes, ambiguous in-flight pointer failures allowed duplicate replay, SSH/relay deadlines cut off a valid `--wait-submit`, stop-vs-exit race during inspection, and two release-recovery paths for vanished or exited terminals). The full record (findings, proof tests, triage, declines with reasons) is archived outside the repo.
**Rework after the live smoke.** A first live cross-host run on the shipped adhoc build (this Mac, a paired Windows host on the same build, a paired Mac on 1.4.195, and an SSH host) found a P1: a running local worker read `unverifiable`/`missing_status` because the fleet snapshot rows lacked the terminal handle the matcher keyed on. A 59-row failure table over every bug fixed during review showed the same two classes recurring: a fact dropped in transit through optional fields, and two authorities for one fact. Two blind designs (Opus, Codex) converged on the same mechanisms, and the scoped tranches landed here with red-then-green seam tests from the real producer to the real consumer, faults injected only at the transport or hook-ingest boundary:
- **Settlement (data-loss class):** one three-valued `WriteSettlement` (`accepted | refused{reason} | unverifiable{reason, bytesHandedToTransport}`) from the SSH multiplexer through daemon client, providers, controller, to pointer staging. No boolean, no rejection-as-third-state. The two silent degrades that fabricated a handoff are deleted; a provider that cannot settle refuses before any effect. Pointer text and Enter share the contract; a partial flush is `unverifiable`, never `refused`.
- **Evidence identity (false-liveness class):** fleet agent-status evidence is a tagged union (`binding: worker | pane | unresolved{reason}`, `clock: observed | delivery`) minted once at ingest, so a hook row captured on one process incarnation can never bind to a later dispatch on the same pane. The matcher's `!worker.paneKey ||` defaults are gone. One host-scope parser replaces two.
- **Small pre-merge items:** `capability_unsupported` from an old peer is no longer relabelled `host_unavailable`; a producer census test asserts every agent-status consumer path projects a pane-only hook row as `live`.
Two ergonomics defects the second live run surfaced on a real database are fixed here too: a pre-v3 dispatch already marked `completed` projected as `outcome_unknown` / `requiresAction: true` forever (three copies of the outcome ladder disagreed on legacy rows; now one resolver, legacy `completed` reads `succeeded` with nothing to act on, legacy `failed` stays actionable on the failure), and an unscoped `worker-list` enumerated the entire database (now defaults to the Run bound to the calling terminal, `--run` overrides, and the receipt's additive `scope` field says which).
A third live round on the shipped adhoc build of `b082443e1f` (same four hosts) plus an unscripted run in the user's own prompt style (a plain Claude Code shell, `/orchestration`, three workers, zero errors, bound-Run default confirmed) found two more branch defects, fixed with red-then-green tests: a worker freshly started on a paired server projected `unverifiable`/`host_indeterminate` with `requiresAction` for ~3 minutes, including after its own `worker_done`, because the host's federation observation returned `missing_liveness_verdict` for any PTY the liveness register had not yet swept (the host now reads a connected pane it owns locally as `live`; disconnected or SSH-scoped panes stay `unverifiable`); and six pre-v3 completed rows still carried an `input` category because settling through the task-status path or `failDispatch` never closed the Dispatch's pending question threads (both paths close them now, and schema v38 closes threads already pending on settled rows). The guide's `worker-start` examples now show `--model sonnet`, since an omitted model inherits the launcher's default.
A Codex adversarial pass on the tranche diff found one real design hole (identity minted at read time instead of ingest, now closed) and two daemon settlement paths that threw instead of settling (fixed). Two `@ts-nocheck` runtime mixins on these paths were extracted into checked modules; the repo-wide `@ts-nocheck` count is unchanged at 171.
Deletions during review: ~1,900 lines (write-only ledger, unread columns, dead v1 archive path, test harnesses shipped in prod, duplicated liveness and state-machine copies, self-capability checks that were compile-time true).
## Testing
- `pnpm typecheck:tsc:node|cli|web` clean
- `pnpm run check:code-quality:changed` 0 findings; `check:react-doctor:changed` 0
- `pnpm verify:bundled-skill-guides`, `verify:skill-bundle-manifest`
- full `pnpm test` on the integrated head: 72,332 pass / 292 skipped; the only failures were three non-PR files (two zsh live-shell suites hit a node-pty spawn-helper ENOENT while a concurrent native rebuild ran, 44/44 in isolation; `release-checkout.unit.test.ts` is a known 30 s load timeout that passes in isolation on `origin/main` too).
- CI on 70b4811267 (rerun, pre-Codex): the only reds are five SSH e2e specs plus `terminal-send-agent-prompt-submit:198`, each shown failing identically on main (main's E2E workflow is red on its last 40 runs). The terminal-send spec is root-caused and fixed separately in #18707. The Windows hook-service flake (#17721) and the federation load flake did not recur.
- Skills: `pnpm exec vitest run` over the skill gate files plus `src/cli`, `config/scripts`, `src/main/skills` pass; live smoke on the built CLI of `skills get orchestration` and `--full` (7 references).
- live headless runtime (`orca-dev serve`, isolated profile): canonical loop, stop, release, archive read, retry rejection, stale-handle check, SIGKILL-and-replay all verified with receipts
- Live cross-host smoke on the shipped adhoc build of `0d465e7931` (this Mac and a paired Windows host on the build, a paired Mac left on 1.4.195, an SSH host): local, paired-new, paired-old and SSH loops all settle; running workers read `live` on every host and `exited` after release; the old peer reads `capability_unsupported` and refuses release honestly. Injected 10 s relay stall with a send in flight: delivered exactly once after recovery, zero duplicates. Every liveness field across 104 receipts is only `live` / `unverifiable` / `exited`.
- Final live cross-host smoke on the shipped adhoc build of `b082443e1f` (same hosts): every loop settles; 942 of 948 legacy completed rows read settled with `requiresAction: false` before the question-thread fix and all of them after; `worker-list` scope reads `bound` / `flag` / `all` correctly; 122 JSON receipts carry only `live` / `unverifiable` / `exited`. Unscripted prompt-style run: clean.
- Confirmation smoke on the shipped adhoc build of `2da076d4e9` (this Mac and the paired Windows host, both updated): a freshly started Windows worker reads `live` on the first fleet poll and on all 20 that follow, with no `host_indeterminate` at any point, and `exited` after release; all 948 legacy completed rows read `requiresAction: false` with `nextAction: none` after schema v38; every verdict across 60 receipts is `live` / `unverifiable` / `exited`.
- Not physically exercised: WSL hosts, the renderer notification bell (headless has no renderer), same-session fence via a real pane close (renderer-only state), restart mid-delivery on a real app (covered by e2e only).
## Notes
- Remote-wire additions are optional fields or `method_not_found`-negotiated methods; one new Electron-only IPC channel (`agentStatus:legacyWorkerTerminalResumeFence`) never crosses the wire.
- SSH contact loss remains `unverifiable`; the execution host stays authoritative.
- Intentional wire projection change: an SSH host scope with an empty `targetId` now projects host id `ssh` instead of an empty string (remote-wire-compatibility rule 3, old clients decode the same field). A fleet pane key without a terminal handle is now `unidentifiable` rather than matched by pane key alone.
- Found live but pre-existing on main, filed separately: a relay daemon-start collision during transport loss rewrites the endpoint credential and wedges the surviving relay (host needs a manual kill); `terminal create` on a reconnecting SSH host reports an opaque `No PTY provider for connection`; `terminal list` reports `orphaned:false` and `terminal close` reports `ptyKilled:true` for a pane whose relay is gone (orchestration's own projection reads `unverifiable` correctly at the same moment).
- Downgrade after this PR is not a supported path: main opens a v37 database and early-returns (its inserts still work against the v36/v37 defaulted columns), but its one-outstanding-Delivery-per-Run index is a no-op against the branch's mailbox-scoped index of the same name.
- Known follow-ups (not blockers): `worker-list` materializes every dispatch row per call; a positive "agent absent" signal distinct from PTY liveness is a product decision left open (a headless fake agent never reaches `live`, so its `nextAction` stays `inspect`); a context-only self-dispatch still lists as `role: worker` in `worker-list`; `dispatch` task-not-found / task-not-ready / inject-rejected still surface as `runtime_error`; task and inbox receipts still expose raw row columns. Deferred skill product decisions live on #18724.
* Shorten orchestration skill description under the Agent Skills 1024-char limit
The folded description was 1038 chars, so spec-conforming installers such
as SkillStar rejected the bundled orchestration skill. Drop the two clauses
already covered elsewhere in the same description: "decomposing work across
agents" (implied by "structured multi-agent coordination") and "automation
of the browser embedded inside Orca" (restated by the locked `orca-cli`
embedded-pages sentence). Every routing trigger asserted by
orchestration-skill-guidance.test.mjs, the orca-cli handoff boundary, and
the Computer Use boundary are unchanged. Result: 958 chars.
Add config/scripts/skill-description-length.test.mjs, which parses every
skills/*/SKILL.md frontmatter with `yaml` and fails on an empty or >1024
char description, so the regression cannot return. orca-cli sits at 1015
and is left as is.
Fixes#17935
* Keep the embedded browser in the orchestration description's orca-cli routing
Restores the word "browser" in the orca-cli sentence ("and the Orca embedded
browser") so agents scanning for it still route embedded-browser control to
orca-cli. Description is 985 chars, 39 under the spec limit.
* fix(orchestration): complete worker tasks and improve coordinator UX
* Fix orchestration lifecycle sender resolution and peek/check compat hand
- Lifecycle sends (worker_done/heartbeat) now use ORCA_TERMINAL_HANDLE
verbatim, skipping the liveness probe and pane remint that could
block delivery during restarts or mismatch stale-runtime assignee
handles.
- --peek now round-trips as {peek:true, unread:false} so older runtimes
that strip unknown params degrade to non-destructive "all" instead of
mark-read, with client-side filtering to restore peek semantics and a
clear error when --peek --wait can't be honored.
- Reject combined read-mode flags (--unread/--peek/--all) before calling
the runtime.
- Distinguish suppressed (already-consumed) lifecycle messages from
ignored ones so send doesn't wake --wait waiters for stale heartbeats.
- Fix task summary truncation to avoid splitting UTF-16 surrogate pairs
and to not misreport whitespace normalization as truncation.
* Add shared helper to abbreviate orchestration task specs for brief listi
- Normalizes whitespace and caps spec length at 160 chars, flagging
truncation separately from whitespace-only changes
- Truncates on UTF-16 code point boundaries to avoid splitting
surrogate pairs and emitting malformed strings
* Add pane-key identity to worker_done/heartbeat reconciliation and server
- Records the sender's pane key on messages and dispatch contexts so
worker_done/heartbeat ownership can be verified by the remint-stable
pane leaf instead of the terminal handle, which is reissued across
restarts.
- Rejects lifecycle messages from a genuinely foreign pane while still
tolerating handle remints, tab break-outs, and older CLIs that lack
pane identity.
- Moves task-spec abbreviation server-side (orchestration.taskList
--brief) so full specs no longer cross SSH/relay transports, with a
client-side fallback for older runtimes; consolidates the shared
abbreviation helper under src/shared.
- Adds a stderr warning when a pre-peek runtime's --peek response hits
the 100-row cap, since older unread messages may be missing.
* Isolate ORCA_PANE_KEY in CLI test beforeEach to fix leaked senderPaneKey
Co-authored-by: Orca <help@stably.ai>
* Fix pane-key remint bypassing dispatch mutual-exclusion lock
- Dispatch locking only matched on assignee_handle, so a reminted
terminal handle (tab break-out) could open a second concurrent
dispatch on the same pane.
- Add leaf-UUID-based pane key comparison (parsePaneKey) as a
secondary lock, falling back to exact handle match for legacy
rows without pane keys.
* Update orchestration skill docs for lifecycle authority and CLI flag add
- Clarify that dispatch lifecycle is tied to taskId+dispatchId verified against
the dispatched pane, not the terminal handle, since handles can be reminted
after restart
- Document new `check --peek`/`--all` and `task-list --brief` flags, with
fallback guidance for older CLIs that reject them
- Note that a valid worker_done auto-completes the task/dispatch, so workers
shouldn't also call task-update manually
---------
Co-authored-by: Orca <help@stably.ai>
* fix(runtime): explain full worktree id selectors (#7432)
* Fix full worktree id selectors for bare repo ids and doc guidance
- Reject bare repo-id selectors up front via a shared validator instead
of relying on worktree-list scanning, so RPC callers no longer trigger
an unnecessary rescan just to detect the mistake
- Propagate the structured worktree_id_requires_full_path code through
RPC error mapping so callers get a typed error, not just a message
- Update orca-cli, orca-emulator, and orchestration skill docs to show
the full `<repo-id>::<path>` id shape and stop implying a bare repo
id is a valid worktree selector
---------
Co-authored-by: Jinjing <6427696+AmethystLiang@users.noreply.github.com>
* docs: design Grok orchestration group
* docs: plan Grok orchestration group implementation
* fix: add Grok orchestration group
* test(orchestration): accept Windows skill newlines
* Fix @grok orchestration group matching and remove stale planning docs
- Reuse the shared buildAgentNameRe matcher in groups.ts instead of a
divergent local regex, so orchestration groups honor the same
Windows launcher-suffix rule (grok.exe/.cmd/.bat/.ps1) as the rest
of Orca's agent-title detection.
- Add test coverage for real Grok OSC title shapes (spinner-collapsed,
session titles) and Windows launcher-suffix titles.
- Delete the now-completed design and implementation-plan docs for
the Grok orchestration group work.
---------
Co-authored-by: Jinjing <6427696+AmethystLiang@users.noreply.github.com>
* skills: prefer agent-first worktree launch; avoid empty shell tabs
Document Orca's first-terminal behavior so agents do not leave dead
shell tabs: --agent runs in the first terminal (one tab), bare
worktree create + terminal create leaves shell + agent (two tabs).
Also: re-resolve live handles via terminal list after create, message
one handle only, and prefer orchestration check --inject over terminal
send for pure orchestration pings. Aligns with CLI docs
(--agent launches the selected agent in the first terminal).
* fix skill guidance for agent-first worktrees
---------
Co-authored-by: Jinjing <6427696+AmethystLiang@users.noreply.github.com>
* Clarify Orca orchestration tool boundary and sidebar lineage
Add a "Tool Boundary" section to the orchestration skill, requiring
explicit Orca runtime state instead of generic subagent tools or
chat-only parallel workers. Also add tests to verify the tool boundary
and clarify sidebar lineage for same-worktree workers.
* Clarify worktree lineage guidance and parent-child boundaries
Update orchestration guidance and tests to clarify when to use child versus
top-level worktree lineages, and when to prefer same-worktree workers.
* Require stating the desired Orca lineage before creating a worktree from
an active feature branch.
* Limit child worktrees to conceptually stacked or dependent tasks.
* Prefer same-worktree workers unless isolated checkouts are explicitly
needed and do not require uncommitted changes.
- Instruct workers to stop and idle or exit immediately after sending
`worker_done`, rather than running a 10-minute polling loop.
- Distinguish instructions based on worker kind: prompt-returning
agents should remain idle for re-engagement, while bare-shell
workers should exit.
- Prevent infinite polling overhead since the coordinator re-engages
workers via fresh terminal input instead of inbox polling.
- Explain that `--no-parent` only controls Orca lineage, not the Git
base branch, and detail how to target independent top-level work.
- Define full handoffs as ownership transfer and forbid the use of
orchestration dispatch injection for them.
- Update CLI help text for `orca worktree create` to reflect the
lineage and base-branch guidance.
- Add tests to verify that these guidance patterns exist in the skill
markdown files.
- Document and update the CLI help, specs, and tests to explicitly guide
users toward `orca terminal create --worktree active --command <agent>`
to launch a fresh agent session in the current checkout.
- Update orchestration and orca-cli skills to prefer active-worktree
terminals when dependent on uncommitted files or active branch state,
distinguishing them from separate worktree creation.
Adds an RPM Linux package target and renames the Linux CLI command to orca-ide to avoid shadowing GNOME Orca, while preserving macOS and Windows CLI command behavior.\n\nFollow-up hardening keeps the Linux launcher executable, removes only old Orca-managed Linux/WSL orca launchers during migration, preserves AppImage/deb artifact names, and updates package/release tests for the RPM asset.
Sharpens the routing boundary so agents reliably pick the right skill:
orchestration owns agent-to-agent messaging (writes that target another
AI agent's terminal), while orca-cli owns worktrees, browser, and
non-agent terminal I/O — including reads and waits on agent terminals.
Validated against adversarial routing tests.
Co-authored-by: Orca <help@stably.ai>
Jinwoo Hong
Brennan Benson
Jinjing
nikg24andnikg24
Rod BoevandJinjing
BingZandJinjing
ryushioneandJinjing
Neil
Emad Fussi