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orca/README.md
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Neil 90801e2deb feat(agents): add first-class ZCode harness (#22464)
* feat(agents): add first-class ZCode harness

Add ZCode (Z.ai's `zcode` CLI) as a supervised Orca agent: managed lifecycle
hooks on local, SSH and Windows hosts; status, question and approval reporting;
synthetic status titles; session resume; orchestration worker launch options;
and desktop + mobile agent-picker registration.

Written against the newly open-sourced `zai-org/ZCode` (agent CLI 0.16.9), not
against a remembered screen:

- ZCode's hook runner writes a Claude-compatible stdin alias set, so it routes
  through the existing Claude-compatible vendor path while keeping its own
  identity in the sidebar.
- `PermissionRequest` fires only once the approval card is on screen and racing
  the user's answer, so it is proof the pane is blocked, not an auto-approval.
- ZCode's clarification tool is literally `AskUserQuestion` with Claude's
  questions/options shape, so Orca's question card renders it unchanged.
- ZCode's `hooks.enabled` defaults to false, which is why configured hooks were
  reported as never firing; the installer sets it.
- ZCode renames its own process to `zcode-cli`, so the expected foreground
  process cannot be the launch command or dispatch refuses the pane.
- ZCode emits no OSC title in any state and repaints its ASCII banner forever,
  so readiness comes from Orca's synthetic hook title and launch drafts wait on
  the composer box rather than on a quiet render window.

Three files crossed their max-lines limit, so each is split along a real seam:
command-line entrypoint parsing out of agent process recognition, skill
classification out of skill root discovery, and registry coverage out of the
remote hook installer tests.

Refs #10564

* fix(zcode): drop the session-option catalog and pin the orchestration contract

ZCode's CLI exposes no `--model` flag at all, and the session-option launch path
refuses to apply any option until a model id is chosen. A catalog therefore could
not deliver `--mode` per worker, and would have accepted `--model` only to drop
it silently. Take opencode's position instead: no catalog, so `worker-start
--model` is refused with a clear message and ZCode launches with the model from
its own config. `--mode` stays reachable through agent args, which is also how
the yolo default is applied.

Add a contract test covering the parts that make ZCode a usable worker:
dispatchable foreground process, stdin prompt delivery, the prompt staying out
of the launch command, and the composer-gated draft paste.

* refactor(zcode): reuse shared helpers and cut the harness down

No behaviour change; every ZCode test still passes.

- Use installer-utils' own `hookDefinitionHasManagedCommand` instead of
  re-walking a hook definition by hand, which also drops a local string reader.
- Share one `readZCodeEventMap` instead of keeping the same narrowing in both
  hook-settings and hook-config-json.
- Collapse five identical error returns into one `zcodeHookError` builder, and
  return early from the status branches instead of assigning through `let`.
- Split the event-to-status decision out of `normalizeZCodeEvent` into a pure
  `readZCodeTurn`, so the normalizer reads as decide-then-build and stops
  computing the tool name for events that never look at it.
- Take a script file name in `readManagedZCodeHookEvents` like its siblings,
  which removes a `Parameters<typeof …>` indirection at the call site.
- Drop the unused `ZCodeHookEvent` export and inline a single-use path helper.
- Correct a stale comment: ZCode's loader is a strict `JSON.parse`, so the
  in-place edit preserves key order and indentation, not comments.

* fix(zcode): address review — keep unmanaged event keys, correct comment, de-dupe README

- `removeZCodeManagedHooks` deleted any event key whose list ended up empty, so an
  unrelated `"Notification": []` the user wrote was removed as collateral whenever a
  managed hook elsewhere made the write happen. Only touch an event Orca actually
  owned something in; covered by a new regression test.
- The `isNewTurnEvent` comment claimed UserPromptSubmit was ZCode's only turn
  boundary while the expression below it also returned true for SessionStart. Say
  what the code does: SessionStart lands the idle boundary, UserPromptSubmit is the
  turn boundary (the Codex/Claude shape).
- ZCode appeared twice in the README's single agent-badge block; keep the
  local-icon entry the link checker validates and drop the favicon duplicate.

* docs(zcode): call out that the desktop bundle's CLI cannot open a session

From live testing on #22464: pointing `zcode` at the desktop app's bundled
`glm/zcode.cjs` installs Orca's hooks fine but then fails with
`Cannot find package '@zcode/tui'`, so the pane never opens a session. The
symptom reads as a broken harness when the CLI simply has no TUI. Say which
build to use and how to check before reporting a problem.

Reported-by: JWu527
2026-09-25 02:17:51 -07:00

17 KiB

Orca Orca

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The AI Orchestrator for 100x builders.
Run Codex, ClaudeCode, OpenCode or Pi side-by-side — each in its own worktree, tracked in one place.

Download Orca

Orca desktop app running agents in parallel worktrees, with the Orca mobile companion app in the corner

Features

Mobile Companion

Monitor and steer your agents from your phone — get notified when an agent finishes and send follow-ups from anywhere.

iOS App Store · TestFlight · Android APK 0.0.50 · Docs →

Orca desktop with the mobile companion app

Parallel Worktrees

Fan one prompt across five agents, each in its own isolated git worktree — compare the results and merge the winner.

Docs →

Parallel worktree orchestration

Terminal Splits

Ghostty-class terminals with WebGL rendering, infinite splits, and scrollback that survives restarts.

Docs →

Terminal splits

Design Mode

Click any UI element in a real Chromium window to send its HTML, CSS, and a cropped screenshot straight into your agent's prompt.

Docs →

Embedded browser and Design Mode

GitHub & Linear, Native

Browse PRs, issues, and project boards in-app — open a worktree from any task and review without a context switch.

Docs →

GitHub and Linear task workflows in Orca

SSH Worktrees

Run agents on a beefy remote box with full file editing, git, and terminals — auto-reconnect and port forwarding included.

Docs →

Remote worktrees over SSH

Annotate AI Diffs

Drop comments on any diff line and ship them back to the agent — review, edit, and commit without leaving Orca.

Docs →

Annotate AI-generated diffs

Drag Files to Agents

VS Code's editor with autosave everywhere — drag files or images straight into an agent prompt.

Docs →

Drag files and images into an agent prompt

Orca CLI

Agents drive Orca too — script every workflow with orca worktree create, snapshot, click, and fill.

Docs →

Script Orca from the CLI

Also in the box:

  • Quick open — Search across worktrees, files, agents, commands, and repo context without leaving your flow.
  • Account switcher & usage tracking — See Claude and Codex usage and rate-limit resets, and hot-swap accounts without re-logging in.
  • Rich repo previews — Preview Markdown, images, PDFs, and repo docs in the workspace.
  • Computer Use — Let agents operate desktop apps and visible UI when a workflow needs real interaction.
  • Notifications and unread state — Know when an agent finishes or needs attention, then mark threads unread to come back later.
  • And many, many more — we ship daily, so this list is perpetually behind. The changelog is the real feature list.

Supported Agents

Works with any CLI agent — if it runs in a terminal, it runs in Orca.

Claude Code logo Claude Code   Codex logo Codex   Grok logo Grok   Cursor logo Cursor   GitHub Copilot logo GitHub Copilot   Muse logo Muse   ZCode logo ZCode   OpenCode logo OpenCode   MiMo Code logo MiMo Code   Amp logo Amp   OpenClaude logo OpenClaude   Antigravity logo Antigravity   Pi logo Pi   oh-my-pi logo oh-my-pi   Hermes Agent logo Hermes Agent   Devin logo Devin   Goose logo Goose   Auggie logo Auggie   Autohand Code logo Autohand Code   Charm logo Charm   Cline logo Cline   Codebuff logo Codebuff   Command Code logo Command Code   Continue logo Continue   Droid logo Droid   Kilocode logo Kilocode   Kimi logo Kimi   Kiro logo Kiro   Mistral Vibe logo Mistral Vibe   Qwen Code logo Qwen Code   Rovo Dev logo Rovo Dev   + any CLI agent


Install

Desktop — macOS, Windows, Linux

Or via a package manager:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install --cask stablyai/orca/orca

# Arch Linux (AUR) — or stably-orca-git to build from source
yay -S stably-orca-bin

Mobile Companion — iOS, Android

Pair with your desktop app to monitor and steer your agents from your phone.


Community & Support

  • Discord: Join the community on Discord.

  • Twitter / X: Follow @orca_build for updates and announcements.

  • WeChat: Scan to join the Orca community WeChat group 10.

    WeChat group 10 QR code for the Orca community
  • Feedback & Ideas: We ship fast. Missing something? Request a new feature.

  • Privacy: See the privacy & telemetry docs for what anonymous usage data Orca collects and how to opt out.

  • Show Support: Star this repo to follow along with our daily ships.


Developing

Want to contribute or run locally? See our CONTRIBUTING.md guide.

The relay that pairs the mobile app with a desktop host is also in this repository under cloud/, with a separate pnpm workspace and setup guide.

Orca contributors

GitHub star history chart for stablyai/orca

Signed Builds

Windows code signing sponored/provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

License

Orca is free and open source under the MIT License.