Clarify that `terminal create --title`/`terminal rename` set the tab
title (reported under visualLayouts), that `set-pane-title` sets
`terminals[].paneTitle`, and that `terminals[].title` is not a stable
key. Document that `agentIdentity` is only the agent type and that the
`worktree ps` `agents[].paneKey` join locates a specific agent's pane.
Fixes#12674
Co-authored-by: Neil <neil@stably.ai>
`orca worktree ps --agent-wait --json` now reports, on each terminal-backed
agent row of the returned page, the same agentWait verdict
`orca terminal show --json` gives for that terminal. The lookup is opt-in
(RPC `includeAgentWait: true`) because it reads screens and may probe PTYs,
which is too costly for default pollers. Hook rows use their terminal handle
only when a connected PTY confirms it, and pane-only hook rows resolve the
live terminal by pane key. Structured-worker rows and older hosts omit the
field (absent = not evaluated; null = looked, no wait).
Fixes#23921
Co-authored-by: Neil <neil@stably.ai>
The bundled orca-cli skill guide never mentioned `terminal read --screen`,
so agents onboarded from it used the stream read on repainting TUIs and got
stacked fragments. Add a --screen example plus the stream-vs-screen and
--screen/--cursor rules, and realign the root help usage lines for
terminal read and terminal split with their command specs.
Fixes#15856
The orca-cli skill guide said `--direction horizontal` splits left/right and
`vertical` splits top/bottom, but terminal panes map `vertical` to a
side-by-side split (flexDirection 'row'), matching the "Split terminal right"
menu. Swap the wording and regenerate the bundled guides.
Fixes#9023
`orca terminal send --text … --enter` now uses the bracketed paste + Enter agent-prompt path for every recognized agent (not just Claude/Codex), so Pi's #/@ completion and Grok's y/n trust question no longer swallow or answer typed prompts. Agents whose process names collide with ordinary tools (orca, acli, cn, vibe) still need title/hook evidence. A send into a permission/trust menu is refused with a hint to send --text and --enter separately.
Refs #20695
Refs #18399
* feat(cli): add orca ports to list a workspace's detected ports
Scripts and agents had no way to read the ports Orca already detects for
a workspace, so finding a dev server on a random port meant redoing the
lsof scan by hand. `orca ports` reuses the host-scoped
workspacePorts.scanHost RPC, keeps the rows owned by the current (or
--worktree) workspace, and prints port, pid, process, connect host,
protocol, how the owner was matched, and the advertised URL. --all shows
every listener on that host. An older runtime without scanHost gets an
"update Orca" error instead of a raw method_not_found.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(cli): resolve folder workspaces in orca ports and match rows by path
Run inside a native folder, `orca ports` failed with selector_not_found
(or picked an enclosing git worktree) because it only searched the
worktree list. It now resolves the cwd like `agent launch`, native
folders first, and shows that host's listeners. Rows are matched on the
owner's path instead of its id, so every instance of a repo-backed
folder workspace keeps its ports even though attribution names only the
first instance as owner. `--all` adds the worktree id when two owners
share a display name, and the skill guide notes that only workspace
rows carry `owner` and `advertisedUrl`.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(cli): refuse orca ports for folder workspaces without --all; document the command
Co-authored-by: Manuel Meurer <manuel@meurer.io>
* fix(cli): recognise native folder path selectors in orca ports; note SSH scan limits
Co-authored-by: Manuel Meurer <manuel@meurer.io>
* fix(cli): refuse a folder path shared by several folder workspaces in orca ports
Co-authored-by: Manuel Meurer <manuel@meurer.io>
* fix(cli): refuse a path a worktree and a folder workspace share in orca ports
Co-authored-by: Manuel Meurer <manuel@meurer.io>
---------
Co-authored-by: Manuel Meurer <manuel@meurer.io>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat(agent.launch): a launch can name chat or terminal, and the CLI gets --surface chat|terminal
agent.launch gains an optional `surface` field, read by hosts advertising
agent.launch.surface.v1. `terminal` always runs the agent's CLI; `chat` runs a
chat even when the user's default is a terminal, and one the host can prove it
cannot open is refused with a typed no-effects error before anything is
created, so a retry answers with the same refusal. The pick is part of the
replay fingerprint. `orca agent launch` and `orca worktree create --agent`
accept --surface chat|terminal and refuse it on a host that would drop it,
including the legacy worktree.create fallback.
* test(agent.launch): pin the surface pick beside the other pre-start failures
* fix(agent.launch): settle requested surfaces from resolved workspace facts
* fix(agent.launch): describe fallback boundaries and correct test types
* feat(cli): set the title of one terminal pane
Adds `orca terminal set-pane-title --terminal <handle> --title <text>`; `--title ""`
clears it. The runtime resolves the live handle to its saved leaf and asks the
desktop window to name that pane through a new optional notifier hook
(`ui:setPaneTitle`). Mounted panes apply it through the same local setter the GUI
uses; parked panes get it in the saved layout their next mount reads. The tab's
own name is never touched.
Rebuilt on current main from #24755.
Co-authored-by: stevelliu <stevelliu@tencent.com>
* fix(renderer): a main-owned layout takes a CLI pane title before the window shows it
* fix(renderer): a CLI pane title reaches a never-mounted tab with a rootless layout
---------
Co-authored-by: stevelliu <stevelliu@tencent.com>
* fix(terminal): log a failed pane reveal instead of rethrowing it
The bridge already replies false when the reveal throws, so the rethrow only
surfaced as an uncaught renderer error after the caller had its answer.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(terminal): refuse terminal.reveal from paired clients
It moves this host's window. terminal.focus lets a paired client do that only
by asking for host navigation, and the callers this method serves (the CLI and
companion apps on the same machine) never arrive as paired clients.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat(terminal): show a paired server's terminal in this desktop on terminal switch
A paired `orca serve` host has no window, so `orca terminal switch --environment <name>`
resolved the handle there, answered `navigated: false`, and the desktop stayed put (#24688).
Add `terminal.reveal`, a desktop runtime method that names a pane by worktree, tab and leaf, as
the owning host knows them, and runs the Agent Dashboard's click-to-focus sequence before raising
the window. When a paired server cannot navigate, `terminal switch` asks the desktop on this
machine to reveal the terminal instead.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* test(e2e): terminal switch on a paired server moves the desktop on this machine
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* test: update terminal manifest count after main and assert the revealed pane renders
Main added a terminal method since this branch was cut, so the characterization
count is 39 with terminal.reveal. The e2e now proves the target pane is visible
in the DOM, not only selected in the store.
Co-authored-by: Velm14 <Velm14@users.noreply.github.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-authored-by: Neil <neil@stably.ai>
Co-authored-by: Velm14 <Velm14@users.noreply.github.com>
* Add CLI commands to manage and find workspace references
* Fix reference review findings: source-context twins, legacy link collapse, closed chats, old-host errors
- Keep same-URL links with different source contexts separate; CLI add/remove no longer drops a twin
- Restore merging a bare legacy link into its single matching URL link (no duplicate PR rows, no resurrection on older-client removal)
- Carry absorbed data through collapse chains; resolve repoId conflicts deterministically
- Identity: ignore www., case-insensitive GitHub/GitLab/Gitea paths (stored URL keeps case), no Jira match on git hosts; find accepts self-hosted issue URLs
- reference find: skip closed native chats, require a session id for linked, include an explicitly named archived workspace, warm-cache fallback for --worktree
- Selector parity: collapse same-host duplicate paths, issue: ignores unlinked rows
- CLI: clear update-host error for hosts without reference.*, local flag checks before host probe, help text fixes
* Fix CI: add reference rm alias for verb policy; expect linkedItems in worktree ps summary
* Simplify reference CLI: share identifier/legacy-match helpers, drop redundant dedupe
* 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.
* feat(cli): orca search over the agent session index
`orca search <query>` calls PR 5's `aiVault.searchSessions` over the CLI's
existing runtime RPC, against the host `--environment` / `--pairing-code`
selects and no other. `orca search --index-status` calls `aiVault.searchStatus`.
It is the proof the contract works with no panel.
Every flag maps onto a contract field and nothing else: `--scope`, `--fresh`,
`--limit`, `--cursor`, repeatable `--agent` and `--path`, `--since`, `--sort`,
`--debug`, `--json`. No fan-out, no merged output, no `--host`.
One command rather than a `search status` subcommand: the query is a bare
positional, so `orca search status` could not be told apart from searching for
the word "status". `--status` is unavailable because `orchestration task-list
--status <state>` already owns the name as a valued flag.
No new runtime capability. PR 5 decided an explicit `method_not_found` refusal
maps to `unavailable/no-service`, so reusing `createSessionSearchClient` gives
an old host a plain "this host runs no session search service" answer at exit 0
instead of a raw JSON-RPC error.
`CommandSpec.repeatableFlags` scopes repeatability per command, because
`--agent` must repeat for search and stay single-valued for `worktree create`.
`help.ts` sat exactly at max-lines, so `skills-command-flag-help.ts` becomes
`command-scoped-flag-help.ts` carrying both tables at the same call-site size.
* refactor(cli): drop the search type assertions main's casting gate now rejects
Main gained a `consistent-type-assertions: never` scan in the changed-code gate
after this branch was cut, and it reported twelve assertions in the new files.
The four in the argument parser were avoidable. `readEnum` now keeps the value
`find` returns, which already carries the narrow type, and the agent filter goes
through an `isAiVaultAgent` predicate over a `Set<string>` instead of widening
the agent tuple.
The test now narrows the printed envelope by shape and re-reads the printed
result through `AiVaultSearchResponseSchema`, so the JSON assertions are checked
rather than claimed, and the flag table is typed so its callback needs no cast.
One assertion is left, for the structural fake client, with the SAFETY rationale
AGENTS.md requires.
* fix(cli): sanitize host strings and scope pre-command repeatable flags
Route every host-supplied string the search formatter prints through the
escape stripper, and resolve the repeatable-flag set from the command
tokens ahead when a flag sits before the command.
* refactor(cli): resolve repeatable flag rules once per command
* fix(cli): clarify session search availability and SSH scope
* feat(cli): hide orca search until the settings toggle ships
`orca search` stays dispatchable but leaves every discovery surface: root
help, group help, unknown-command suggestions, and `agent-context --json`.
`buildAgentContext` did not filter hidden specs, so it also stops leaking
the hidden `terminal stop`.
* feat(cli): show orca search now the settings toggle ships
* docs(skills): teach the orca-cli guide the search command
One section: what orca search covers, one host at a time, scope and
narrowing flags, index status before searching, and that a human turns
search on.
* docs(skills): shape the search section like the other command sections
* Persist agents sidebar search field visibility as pairing-local preferen
- Add `agentsShowSearch` to workspace UI state with default on
- Include in pairing-local fields so preference syncs across clients
- Convert search from menu action to checkbox menu item for explicit toggle
- Update activity thread options menu to reflect checkbox state
- Add localization strings across all supported languages
- Update RPC schemas and preference persistence layer
- Includes readiness validation reports confirming feature is clean
* rm review
* fix documentation
* 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.
<!-- 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.
* fix(runtime): recover stale session owners and await retirement
* fix(runtime): preserve session hydration and smoke compatibility
* test(runtime): cover empty and unindexed session owners
* feat(cli): make terminal close the canonical workspace teardown
* fix(preload): align ssh termination result type
* test(runtime): assert folder hydration owner
* fix(runtime): fence legacy terminal stop by worktree host
* fix(preload): reconcile ssh result import with main
* fix(runtime): keep same-id sibling hosts out of workspace close
The stale-owner fallback in the session controller re-routed any worktree whose
catalog partition had no tabs to whichever other partition held tabs. Only
`runtime:` environment ids rotate across relay restarts; `repoId::path` legitimately
repeats across hosts, so an SSH workspace close could retire the local copy's
tabs and resume records, or flip owners mid-close and strand the SSH PTY.
Restrict the fallback to runtime hosts, and pin the session partition once per
workspace close so record clearing targets the partition that owned the tabs.
* test(runtime): give the cross-host close fixture a real resume record
* fix(preload): take main's ssh-bridge import order so the merge stays duplicate-free
* Fix orchestration CLI recovery, settled-Dispatch mail, and guide defects
Five reported orchestration CLI defects, verified individually before fixing.
Two were real code defects, one was a docs error, one was correct as-is, and
one was correct on both ends except for its recovery wording.
- Mail addressed to a settled `dispatch:<id>` was accepted and silently dropped.
Local sends bypassed the settlement check the federated branch already had, so
the caller was told success for a delivery no worker would ever read. Reject
with `dispatch_inactive` and name the Run mailbox to use instead.
- A lost mutation response offered no read-only way to ask whether it took
effect. `--retry-request` does dedupe correctly, but the recovery guidance
emitted a query command only when the payload carried a dispatch id, which is
exactly what a lost response lacks. Add read-only
`orca orchestration request-show --request <id>` over the durable receipt
ledger, and always emit a read-only step before the keyed retry.
- The bundled `orca-cli` guide documented `check --unread --inject`, a flag the
parser rejects. Correct it to `--format` and add a ratchet that runs every
orchestration invocation in the bundled guides through the real CLI parser.
- `check --json` is one stdout document and its keepalives are stderr-only; the
reported `Extra data: line 2` came from merging the streams. Document the
contract rather than changing the wire.
- A rejected lifecycle message is loud on both ends already, but the rejection
never named the flag that supplies the missing capability. Name it.
* Harden orchestration mutation recovery guidance
* fix(artifacts): gate agent artifact publishing behind an off-by-default capability
Public artifact sharing was reachable by any agent through `orca artifacts
share`: the Artifacts settings toggle only controlled sidebar visibility, and
nothing in the main process checked a capability before minting a public URL.
Add `artifactSharingEnabled` (default off) and enforce it in
ArtifactCloudService.share/update — before auth, network, or the share-record
write — so the CLI, relay-forwarded remote CLI, and IPC paths are all denied.
The denial carries a stable `artifact_sharing_disabled` code plus next steps
through the RPC error allowlist, so the CLI prints actionable guidance.
list, unshare, and delete stay ungated: turning publishing off must not strand
already-published links. The capability is absent from the `settings.update`
RPC schema, so an agent cannot grant it to itself — only the desktop UI can.
Co-authored-by: Orca <help@stably.ai>
* fix(artifacts): gate agent artifact publishing behind an off-by-default
Publishing is blocked until enabled in Settings → Artifacts. CLI preflights the capability before reading files to avoid unnecessary uploads. RPC surface rejects capability grants so callers cannot self-grant. UI shows opt-in workflow and recovery path when publishing is off. Web clients mirror the host's setting read-only.
---------
Co-authored-by: Orca <help@stably.ai>
* perf(runtime): gate terminal.list visual layouts and stop the false writable claim
visualLayouts is ~31% of a large terminal.list payload (44,208 B of 137,412 B on a live 134-terminal remote runtime) and has exactly one consumer: the human-readable CLI formatter. Gate it behind an includeVisualLayouts request param that defaults to included, so pre-flag clients are unaffected, and have every --json/internal caller opt out.
Also drop the record-backed builder's writable, which was a verbatim copy of connected. terminal.show now states writability explicitly as exactly what terminal.send's PTY gate enforces.
* test(runtime): type the payload-size fixture arrays for tsc
* fix(runtime): preserve terminal list compatibility
* test(runtime): guard terminal list optimization
* fix(cli): preserve agent access to terminal layouts
* 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.
Wooseong KimandNeil
小七andNeil
Jinwoo Hong
Jason Brashear
Kaynan Sampaio de Camargo
Neil
Brennan Benson
Jinjing
