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orca/skill-stubs/orchestration.md
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Jinwoo Hong fb322046e8 skills: rewrite and trim the seven non-orchestration guides (#19128)
* 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
2026-09-07 00:03:48 -04:00

1.6 KiB

Orca Orchestration

This file is a discovery stub, not the usage guide. The full, version-matched Orca orchestration reference is served by the orca binary itself — kept out of this file on purpose so it can never drift from the binary that will actually run your commands.

Engage Orca orchestration whenever you need structured multi-agent coordination: threaded messages, blocking ask/reply flows, task dispatch, worker_done/escalation waits, task DAGs, decision gates, coordinator loops, or decomposing work across agents. Use the orca-cli skill instead for full ownership handoffs ("hand off", "handoff", "handover", "give this to another agent", "another worktree") when the user did not ask to supervise, monitor, wait for results, or coordinate a DAG — and for ordinary terminal control, shell commands, worktree management, and the built-in browser. Coordination requires real Orca runtime state; never substitute a non-Orca subagent tool.

Load the version-matched guide before running Orca commands

ORCA skills get orchestration

That prints the compact, version-matched guide for the exact binary that will handle your next commands. It covers the normal local coordinator loop. For a conditional action gate such as remote placement, uncertain release recovery, or expanded DAG work, load only the reference that gate names with ORCA skills get orchestration --reference references/<file>.md (--references lists the names). If that binary rejects --reference, run ORCA skills get orchestration --full and read the named bundled reference before acting.