Agent skill

Orca Orchestration

by stablyai in stablyai/orca

“Coordinate supervised Orca workers: threaded messages, blocking ask/reply, task dispatch, worker_done/escalation waits, task DAGs, decision gates, coordinator loops, and…”

— description from SKILL.md by stablyai
MITAuto-check passedAgent Workflows

Install Orca Orchestration

skills CLI
$ npx skills add stablyai/orca --skill orchestration -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install stablyai/orca orchestration --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/stablyai/orca.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/orchestration .claude/skills/orchestration && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
orchestration
GitHub stars
87k
Token cost
~916 tokens
SKILL.md length
445 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
9
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

  • SKILL.md covers Resolve the CLI for this session and Load the version-matched guide…
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

About this skill

“Coordinate supervised Orca workers: 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.”

— description from SKILL.md by stablyai

Orca Orchestration is a skill in stablyai/orca (87k stars). Its SKILL.md is about 916 tokens. Licence: MIT.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 61de2d8. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Orca Orchestration loads about 916 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 135 tokens; SKILL.md has 445 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~135
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~916

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from stablyai/orca at commit 61de2d8, republished under its MIT licence (© stablyai). 445 words, ~916 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/orchestration/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
orchestration
description
Coordinate supervised Orca workers: 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.

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.

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.

Show full SKILL.md (164 more words)Show less

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. 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.

© stablyai, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/orchestration of stablyai/orca.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 61de2d8

Compare with similar skills

Orca Orchestration next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Orca Orchestration compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Orca Orchestration this skillstablyai/orca87k—~916Automated safety check: PassMIT
Agtx Task Sweepfynnfluegge/agtx1.7k—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
GSD Quick Batchopen-gsd/gsd-core10k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
ClawTeam Multi-Agent Swarmwin4r/ClawTeam-OpenClaw1.5k1 repos~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
MemPalace Task HandoffMemPalace/mempalace59k—~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Agent of Empires Session Manageragent-of-empires/agent-of-empires3.3k—~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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All 9 skills in this repo
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  • Orca Computer Use

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    87k GitHub stars~558 tokensUpdated today
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Categories

Questions about Orca Orchestration

How do I install Orca Orchestration in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add stablyai/orca --skill orchestration -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/orchestration in stablyai/orca) into .claude/skills/orchestration in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Orca Orchestration in Codex?

Run `npx skills add stablyai/orca --skill orchestration -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/orchestration in stablyai/orca) into .agents/skills/orchestration in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Orca Orchestration in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add stablyai/orca --skill orchestration -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/orchestration, .gemini/skills/orchestration, .github/skills/orchestration and .opencode/skills/orchestration in your project.

What does Orca Orchestration need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Orca Orchestration is instructions for the agent only.

Does Orca Orchestration access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Orca Orchestration safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Orca Orchestration use?

Orca Orchestration is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Orca Orchestration use?

About 916 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.7k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Orca Orchestration?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Orca Orchestration: Agtx Task Sweep (fynnfluegge/agtx, 1.7k stars), GSD Quick Batch (open-gsd/gsd-core, 10k stars), ClawTeam Multi-Agent Swarm (win4r/ClawTeam-OpenClaw, 1.5k stars) and MemPalace Task Handoff (MemPalace/mempalace, 59k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Orca Orchestration?

stablyai (a GitHub organization) maintains it in stablyai/orca, which has 87,277 GitHub stars. The repository holds 9 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.

Source: stablyai/orca on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.