Orbit AI

AI-powered coding companion for IBM ACE integration developers.

Orbit brings an AI agent directly into your terminal — purpose-built for IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE), ESQL, IBM MQ, and API Connect workflows. It ships with embedded skills and reference material so the AI understands your integration stack out of the box.

Install

npm install -g orbit-code-ai

Requires Node.js 20 or later.

Quick Start

With Anthropic (Claude)

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-your-key-here
orbit

Windows PowerShell:

$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your-key-here"
orbit

With Gemini

export GEMINI_API_KEY=your-key-here
orbit

With Ollama (local, no API key)

export ORBIT_CODE_USE_OPENAI=1
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/v1
export OPENAI_MODEL=qwen2.5-coder:7b
orbit

What's Inside

Orbit ships with a suite of IBM ACE slash commands and a full agent reference — loaded automatically so the AI has deep context on your stack without any extra setup.

Commands

| Command | What it does | |---|---| | /ace-app | Generate a complete IBM ACE application from requirements — .project, descriptor, gateway + main flows, subflows, ESQL, XSD, and Swagger | | /ace-scaffold | Scaffold a single new message flow with ESQL from a description | | /ace-review | Thorough code review of ESQL, flow wiring, naming, error handling, and standards | | /ace-fix | Diagnose and fix bugs in ESQL or message flows | | /ace-explain | Explain an ACE flow or ESQL module in plain language | | /ace-refactor | Refactor ESQL for performance, clarity, and standards | | /ace-test | Generate comprehensive test scenarios for flows and ESQL | | /apic-api | Generate a complete API Connect (APIC) API definition — OpenAPI contract plus the full x-ibm-configuration assembly (JWT validate, logging, response envelope, catch handlers) |

Agent Reference

Built-in reference docs loaded into every session:

• ESQL coding standards
• Message flow XML reference
• Node types (extended)
• HTTP, MQ, and file flow templates
• Naming conventions and properties templates
• Component patterns: audit logging, common utils, error handling, HTTP/input/output adapters, retry

Supported Providers

| Provider | How to configure | |---|---| | Anthropic (Claude) | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var | | Google Gemini | GEMINI_API_KEY env var | | OpenAI | ORBIT_CODE_USE_OPENAI=1 + OPENAI_API_KEY | | Ollama (local) | ORBIT_CODE_USE_OPENAI=1 + OPENAI_BASE_URL pointing to local server | | OpenAI-compatible | Any /v1-compatible endpoint via OPENAI_BASE_URL |

Features

• IBM ACE-aware — skills and reference docs ship inside the package; no external config needed
• Terminal-first — streaming responses, tool calling, slash commands, file tools, bash
• MCP support — connect external Model Context Protocol servers
• Agent routing — route different tasks to different models via ~/.orbit/settings.json
• gRPC server mode (source build) — run Orbit as a headless service on localhost:50051 for CI/CD or custom UI integration
• Privacy-first — telemetry stubbed at build time; no phone-home

Agent Routing

Route different agent tasks to different models. Define each model's connection in agentModels, then map agents (or default) to those names in agentRouting. Every name used in agentRouting must exist in agentModels:

// ~/.orbit/settings.json
{
  "agentModels": {
    "gemini-3.1-pro-preview":  { "base_url": "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai", "api_key": "your-gemini-key" },
    "gemini-3.1-flash-lite":   { "base_url": "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai", "api_key": "your-gemini-key" }
  },
  "agentRouting": {
    "Explore": "gemini-3.1-flash-lite",
    "Plan": "gemini-3.1-pro-preview",
    "default": "gemini-3.1-flash-lite"
  }
}

gRPC Server Mode (source build only)

From a source checkout (not the npm package), run Orbit as a headless gRPC service on localhost:50051:

bun run dev:grpc

Connect your own client using src/proto/orbit.proto — clients can be generated in Python, Go, Rust, or any gRPC-supported language. This mode requires the repository; it is not included in the published npm package.

Source Build

bun install
bun run build
node dist/cli.mjs

Useful dev commands:

bun run dev          # build + run
bun run smoke        # build + version check
bun run doctor:runtime   # system diagnostics
bun run verify:privacy   # confirm no telemetry
bun test             # unit tests

Requirements

• Node.js >= 20.0.0
• An API key for your chosen provider (or a running Ollama instance)
• IBM ACE toolkit (for the integration projects Orbit assists with — not required to run Orbit itself)

Disclaimer

Orbit AI is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by IBM, Anthropic, or Google.

License

See LICENSE.