* 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 | 6 | $\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$544 | $\color{#cf222e}{\Huge{\mathbf{−}}}$49 | $\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$495 |
| Prod | 36 | $\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$1719 | $\color{#cf222e}{\Huge{\mathbf{−}}}$1703 | $\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$16 |
<!-- /orca-pr-loc -->
## ELI5
Orca ships eight skill guides that agents read before running the CLI. Seven of them (everything except `orchestration`, which #16904 rewrites) were command catalogs that had drifted from the binary. This PR rewrites them so an agent reads the outcome, the done bar, and the safe-failure rule first, loads reference material only at the step that needs it, and never sees a command or flag the installed CLI does not define.
## What changed
- **Seven guides rewritten** to one standard: outcome spine first (Result / Done / Safe failure), conditions instead of case lists, one done bar, one autonomy envelope, references loaded at the point of use via `skills get <topic> --full`, every runnable invocation spelled `ORCA`. `orca-cli` is 424→260 always-loaded lines with three references (browser, automations, publishing); `orca-per-workspace-env` is 794→397 with five (provider-vercel, ssh-host, docker-ssh, windows-scripts, failure-modes).
- **Defects fixed in shipped guides:** `emulator camera` (no such command), iOS `permissions` (backend refuses it), Android pane described as "in development" (shipped in June), `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`, the Linear unconfirmed-write rule keyed on four verbs when ten emit it. Linear and emulator descriptions dropped embedded commands and angle-bracket placeholders (651→329, 732→404 chars).
- **Generator bundles references.** `skill-guides/<name>/references/*.md` is appended to `--full`; `skills get` help says compact by default, full with references.
- **Stubs single-authored.** The resolver ladder, placeholder rule, and older-binary fallback shared by all eight installable `SKILL.md` files come from one `skill-stubs/_shared/cli-resolution.md` fragment composed by the generator. Projections were byte-identical before the content fixes.
- **Guards:** every `ORCA <cmd>` and flag in every guide and reference resolves against `COMMAND_SPECS` (this found the camera defect); descriptions ≤1024 chars with no angle-bracket tokens; reference routing checked both directions; an always-loaded size ratchet (300 lines) that guides may leave but never join. `orchestration` (440 lines on main) is recorded as an exception until #16904 lands its kernel.
## Relationship to #16904
Split out of #16904 so that PR carries only the orchestration guide. On main, `terminal send` has no `--wait-submit` / `--retry-request` and the orchestration kernel still carries the resolver ladder and worktree-selector rule, so this branch pins `accepted: true` for handoff receipts and leaves the orchestration pins where main has them. The merge in either direction is mechanical: #16904 rebased on this becomes a one-file `orchestration.md` change plus dropping the two exceptions.
## Standard
Compound Engineering's portable skill-authoring guidance (outcome spine, conditions not cases, pinned fragile commands with an ordered hatch, references at point of use). NVIDIA SkillEvaluator Tier 1 (`schema,pii,license,quality,unicode,lint`) was run on every guide; its deterministic checks pass, its template nudges (Instructions/Examples sections, 50–150 char descriptions) do not apply to Orca's stub architecture and were not applied.
## Testing
- `pnpm typecheck:tsc:cli` clean; `check:code-quality:changed` and `check:react-doctor:changed` 0 findings
- `pnpm verify:bundled-skill-guides` and skill-bundle manifest verify clean
- vitest over `config/scripts`, `src/cli/skill-guide-cli-parity.test.ts`, `src/cli/skills.test.ts`, `src/cli/specs/skills.test.ts`, `src/cli/help.test.ts`, `src/main/skills`: 240 files / 2,019 pass
- Live smoke on the built CLI of every `skills get <topic>` and `--full`, every emulator, linear, and vm verb named in the guides, and every projection's resolver, GNOME warning, and bounded fallback (done on the #16904 branch before the split; the guide bodies are identical here except the send-receipt vocabulary noted above)
## Deferred product decisions
Merging `orca-emulator` and `orca-emulator-android` into one skill with a platform branch; collapsing `linear-tickets` to a guide alias; a `skills get --reference <name>` selector so a gate table can load one file; a fresh-agent routing eval before trimming the `orca-cli` (1,015 chars) and `orchestration` descriptions, whose quoted triggers each fixed a routing misroute.
* docs(computer): clarify screenshot output requirements
* fix(cli): do not advertise an unshipped --probe flag
The capabilities help line referenced --probe, which does not exist yet;
it ships in a later change. Advertising it here would be false until then.
* fix(cli): align computer-use screenshot guidance
* docs(computer): document inline screenshot fallback
* docs(computer): keep screenshot summary accurate
* docs(computer): keep screenshot guidance general
* feat(computer-use): support macOS middle click and gate the AX click path
`--mouse-button middle` already validated end-to-end through the CLI, the
zod schema, and the provider validator, and both the Windows and Linux
providers honored it. Only the macOS provider rejected it outright with
"middle-click is not yet supported", so the flag was a dead end on the one
platform that has no fallback.
Two changes:
- Add `.middle` to the macOS button mapping. macOS has no dedicated middle
event family, so it rides `otherMouseDown`/`otherMouseUp` with the button
number carried by `mouseButton: .center`; that constructor argument is
honored for exactly the `otherMouse*` types, so no extra field write is
needed.
- Validate the requested button before the accessibility fast path, and skip
that path for buttons it cannot express. Previously the raw string was read
unvalidated, and `performClickAction` only special-cased `right`, so
`click --mouse-button middle --element-index N` (no modifiers, count 1) fell
through to `AXPress` — a left click — and reported success with
`path: "accessibility"`. Any unrecognized button string did the same. This
matches guards the Windows and Linux providers already had.
The button enum moves into `OrcaComputerUseMacOSCore` so it is unit-testable;
`main.swift` keeps only the CoreGraphics mapping.
Also documents `--mouse-button` in the computer-use skill guide, which never
mentioned the flag, so agents on Windows and Linux had no way to discover it.
* test(computer-use): cover macOS middle click in the real-desktop e2e suite
* test(computer-use): prove macOS middle-click delivery
* Add version-matched bundled skill guides
* Clarify skill freshness rollout PRs
* Add canonical skills show alias
* fix(skills): address guide review feedback
* fix(skills): make guide commands cross-platform
* fix(skills): apply the ORCA convention to the emulator guides
Review follow-up: the emulator guides still instructed literal
`orca emulator ...` in sh fences with no Linux disambiguation, so on
unmanaged Linux they could launch the GNOME screen reader — the exact
failure the executable-selection preamble prevents. Both emulator
guides now carry the preamble and ORCA placeholder across fences,
tables, and prose, and the cross-platform safety test covers all four
converted guides. Also replaces computer-use's "unless a block names a
shell" carve-out, which contradicted its own POSIX example, with the
unconditional placeholder rule.
Jinwoo Hong
Brennan Benson
Neil