Orca

Coordinated agent run harness. Breaks a task into a graph, then executes it end-to-end via a persistent Codex session.

Install

npm install -g orcastrator

Quick Start

# 1. Go into a git repo
cd /path/to/repo

# 2. Run a task
orca "add input validation to the signup form in src/auth/signup.ts"

# 3. Check status
orca status --last

# 4. Once done, open a PR
orca pr create --last

Write specific goals. Orca passes your task to a planner — vague input produces vague plans.

• Bad: "fix the bug"
• Good: "Fix the TypeError thrown on logout with an expired token in src/auth/session.ts. Ensure existing tests pass and add a regression test."

Common Workflows

Status & monitoring

orca status                  # list all runs
orca status --last           # most recent run
orca status --run <run-id>   # specific run
orca list                    # alias for status

Run states: planning → running → completed | failed | cancelled | waiting_for_answer

Answering questions

If a run hits waiting_for_answer, it's blocked until you respond:

orca status --last                          # read the question
orca answer <run-id> "yes, use migration A"  # unblock it

Spec / plan files

Use a markdown spec instead of an inline task:

orca --spec ./specs/feature.md   # plan + execute
orca plan --spec ./specs/feature.md  # plan only, no execution

Failure & recovery

orca resume --last   # retry from last checkpoint
orca cancel --last   # abort

Common failures:

• auth error → re-auth Codex (codex auth) or set OPENAI_API_KEY / ORCA_OPENAI_API_KEY
• no git repo → cd into a git repo
• plan invalid → goal too vague; cancel and restate
• Session logs: ./session-logs/ (or sessionLogs config path)

PR workflow

orca pr draft --last     # open a draft PR (won't trigger CI)
orca pr publish --last   # un-draft it
orca pr create --last    # draft + publish in one step
orca pr status --last    # check PR and CI status

Orca always works on a branch — never pushes directly to main/master.

Config

Orca loads config in this order (later overrides earlier):

1. ~/.orca/config.ts or ~/.orca/config.js (global)
2. ./orca.config.ts or ./orca.config.js (project)
3. --config <path> (explicit)

.ts is preferred over .js when both exist.

// orca.config.ts
import { defineOrcaConfig } from "orcastrator";

export default defineOrcaConfig({
  executor: "codex",              // only supported value
  runsDir: "./.orca/runs",        // default: ~/.orca/runs
  sessionLogs: "./session-logs",
  skills: ["./.orca/skills"],
  maxRetries: 1,

  codex: {
    model: "gpt-5.3-codex",
    effort: "medium",             // "low" | "medium" | "high" — applies to all Codex turns
    timeoutMs: 300000,
    multiAgent: false,      // see Multi-agent section
    perCwdExtraUserRoots: [
      { cwd: process.cwd(), extraUserRoots: ["/tmp/shared-skills"] }
    ],
  },

  review: {
    plan: {
      enabled: true,
      onInvalid: "fail",    // "fail" | "warn_skip"
    },
    execution: {
      enabled: true,
      maxCycles: 2,
      onFindings: "auto_fix",  // "auto_fix" | "report_only" | "fail"
      validator: {
        auto: true,            // auto-detect validators from package.json
        // commands: ["npm run validate"]  // explicit override
      },
      // prompt: "Prefer minimal safe fixes"
    },
  },

  pr: {
    enabled: true,
    requireConfirmation: true,
  },

  hooks: {
    onTaskComplete: async (event, context) => {
      console.log(`task done: ${event.taskId} from pid ${context.pid}`);
    },
    onError: async (event) => { console.error(event.error); },
  },

  hookCommands: {
    onComplete: "echo run complete",
    onError: "echo run failed",
    onTaskComplete: "node ./scripts/on-task-complete.mjs",
  },
});

Review cycle

After planning, Orca runs a pre-execution review that can edit the task graph (add/remove tasks, update fields, adjust dependencies) before execution starts.

After execution, Orca runs validation commands and asks Codex to review findings. With onFindings: "auto_fix", it applies fixes and retries up to maxCycles times, then reports. Set ORCA_SKIP_VALIDATORS=1 to skip validator auto-detection at runtime.

Multi-agent mode

Set codex.multiAgent: true to spawn parallel Codex agents per task. Faster for large refactors with independent subtasks; higher token cost. Note: this writes multi_agent = true to your global ~/.codex/config.toml.

Skills

Orca auto-loads skills in this precedence order (first name wins):

1. config.skills[]
2. ./.orca/skills/ (project-local)
3. ~/.orca/skills/ (global)
4. Bundled defaults (includes code-simplifier)

Inject additional app-server-visible skills via codex.perCwdExtraUserRoots.

CLI Reference

orca <task>                              Start a run
orca --spec <path>                       Run from a spec file
orca plan --spec <path>                  Plan only, no execution

orca status [--last | --run <id>]        Run status
orca list                                List all runs
orca resume [--last | --run <id>]        Retry from checkpoint
orca cancel [--last | --run <id>]        Abort a run
orca answer <run-id> "<text>"            Answer a waiting question

orca pr draft [--last | --run <id>]      Open draft PR
orca pr create [--last | --run <id>]     Create and publish PR
orca pr publish [--last | --run <id>]    Un-draft an existing PR
orca pr status [--last | --run <id>]     PR and CI status
                                         (non-TTY: --run or --last required)

orca skills                              List loaded skills
orca setup                               Interactive setup wizard

Key flags for orca (run):

• --codex-only — force Codex executor
• --codex-effort <low|medium|high> — override effort for this run
• --config <path> — explicit config file
• --on-complete <cmd>, --on-error <cmd>, --on-task-complete <cmd>, --on-findings <cmd>, etc.

Key flags for orca resume:

• --codex-only, --codex-effort <low|medium|high>, --config <path>, --run <id>, --last

orca setup flags:

• --openai-key <key> — write key to config
• --executor <codex> — set executor
• --ts — write TypeScript config
• --global — write to ~/.orca/config.js
• --project — write to ./orca.config.js

Hooks

Available hook names: onMilestone, onTaskComplete, onTaskFail, onInvalidPlan, onFindings, onComplete, onError.

• Function hooks (config.hooks): receive (event, context) where context = { cwd, pid, invokedAt }
• Command hooks (config.hookCommands / --on-* flags): receive full event JSON over stdin
• Unknown hook keys in config are rejected at load time

Run ID format

<slug>-<unix-ms>-<hex4> — e.g. feature-auth-1766228123456-1a2b

Run state locations

• Status: <runsDir>/<run-id>/status.json
• Answer payloads: <runsDir>/<run-id>/answer.txt
• runsDir defaults to ~/.orca/runs (override with ORCA_RUNS_DIR)

Project instruction files

Orca injects AGENTS.md into planning context when found at the project root.

Development

npm install        # canonical install (use npm for deps)
bun run src/cli/index.ts "task"   # local dev
bun test src
npm run test:postexec-json

Full validation gate (runs lint → type-check → tests → build):

npm run validate

Package manager policy

• npm — canonical for deps, CI, and publish (package-lock.json)
• Bun — used as runtime/test runner locally (bun.lock)

Commit both lockfiles. When changing deps: npm install && bun install.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.