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## 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