orchestration · diff
git:20261029.ac9b16c to git:20261031.55b352b
29 added, 23 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: orchestration
description: >-
- Coordinate supervised Orca workers, or work as a dispatched worker
- (heartbeats, ask, worker_done): threaded messages, blocking ask/reply, task
- dispatch, worker_done/escalation waits, task DAGs, decision gates,
- coordinator loops, and decomposing work across agents. Use `orca-cli` for full
- ownership handoffs — "hand off", "handoff", "handover", "give this to another
- agent", "another worktree" — unless asked to supervise, monitor, or coordinate
- a DAG, and for terminal control, lightweight terminal prompts, shell commands,
- Orca worktree management, and reading or waiting on terminals.
+ Run work in separate Orca worker agents and get their results back. Use when
+ the user asks for Orca workers or supervision (monitor, task DAGs, ask/reply,
+ decision gates), or when the work needs something your own subagents cannot
+ give: a different agent (such as Codex from Claude) or its own Orca workspace.
+ "Have Codex (or Claude) review this and report back" means an Orca worker of
+ that agent, even when you have your own model subagents.
+ Also use when you are a dispatched worker (a prompt with Task and Dispatch
+ IDs: ask, worker_done). Otherwise prefer your own subagents,
+ including for long or parallel work. Use `orca-cli` to hand work off with
+ nothing expected back ("hand off", "handover", "give this to another agent",
+ "another worktree"), and for terminal control, shell commands, worktree
+ management, and reading or waiting on terminals.
---
# 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. Engage it as well
- when you are a dispatched worker sending heartbeats, `ask` questions, or `worker_done`. 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.
+ Use Orca orchestration to run work in separate Orca worker agents and get their results
+ back: when the user asks for Orca workers or supervision (monitor, task DAGs, ask/reply,
+ decision gates), or when the work needs something your own subagents cannot give, such as a
+ different agent or its own Orca workspace. "Have Codex (or Claude) review this and report
+ back" means an Orca worker of that agent, even when you have your own model subagents. Use
+ it as well when you are a dispatched worker sending `ask` questions or `worker_done`. Otherwise prefer your own subagents,
+ including for long or parallel work. Use the orca-cli skill instead to hand work off with
+ nothing expected back ("hand off", "handoff", "handover", "give this to another agent",
+ "another worktree"), 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 when the user asked for Orca orchestration.
## Resolve the CLI for this session
Choose the executable once and reuse it for every later command:
- If the `ORCA_CLI_COMMAND` environment variable is set, use its value. Orca exports this
for managed WSL sessions.
- Otherwise, in a dev checkout whose session exposes `ORCA_DEV_REPO_ROOT`, use `orca-dev`.
- Otherwise, on Linux outside an Orca-managed terminal, use `orca-ide`. Never run bare
`orca` there — outside Orca's terminals it normally resolves to the
GNOME Orca screen reader (`/usr/bin/orca`) and starts speech on the user's machine.
- Otherwise, use `orca`.
Below, `ORCA` is a placeholder for the executable you resolved. Substitute it before
running anything; do not create a shell variable or run `ORCA` literally. This works the
same way in POSIX shells, PowerShell, and cmd.exe.
If the selected executable cannot run, report its exact error and stop. Do not fall through
to another executable, which could silently target a different Orca build.
## Load the version-matched guide before running Orca commands
```text
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 and dispatched-worker
obligations. 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.
- Prefer `--json`. Use the selected executable's `--help` for commands or flags the guide does
- not cover. If a command reports that Orca is not running, start it with `ORCA open --json`
- and retry. If it fails with `runtime_access_denied`, your sandbox blocked the connection:
- re-run it with escalated permissions, and do not run `ORCA open` or restart Orca. If
- `skills get` is unknown, explain that updating Orca restores the guide; use `--help` for
- read-only discovery and do not guess unsupported commands.
+ Use the selected executable's `--help` for commands or flags the guide does not cover. If a
+ command reports that Orca is not running, start it with `ORCA open --json` and retry. If it
+ fails with `runtime_access_denied`, your sandbox blocked the connection: re-run it with
+ escalated permissions, and do not run `ORCA open` or restart Orca. If `skills get` is unknown,
+ explain that updating Orca restores the guide; use `--help` for read-only discovery and do not
+ guess unsupported commands.