Orca ADE

Orca is an open-source Agent Development Environment (ADE) built for running a fleet of coding agents. Instead of opening one agent in one terminal, it runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Cursor CLI and other agents side by side, each in its own isolated worktree, with a Ghostty-inspired terminal, a built-in file editor, and git tracking keeping every branch moving. The project reached over 51,000 GitHub stars within months of launch, making it one of the fastest-growing agent infrastructure tools of 2026.

Key Features

• Parallel agents in isolated worktrees: Launch multiple coding agents on different branches or tickets at once without their changes colliding.
• Session overview: See the live status of every agent session, which branch it is on, how long it has been running, and what it is doing.
• Built-in editor and terminal: Ghostty-inspired terminals plus a file editor, so you can review and fix agent output without leaving Orca.
• Remote and mobile: Sync all sessions from multiple machines into one place, with official desktop apps for macOS, Windows, Linux and mobile companions for iOS and Android.
• Tasks and automations: Schedule agent runs, automate repeated workflows, and track results from an observability dashboard.

Use Cases

Who Should Use This Tool?

• Professional developers: Run parallel agents on separate tickets or feature branches and review each output in a shared workspace.
• Agent-heavy teams: Keep every in-flight session visible instead of juggling a dozen terminal tabs.
• Multi-machine users: Alternate between a laptop, desktop or VPS and keep all sessions in one place through the remote server.
• Automation builders: Use Orca Tasks and automations to turn recurring agent work into scheduled runs.

Problems It Solves

1. Agent sprawl: Multiple terminal windows for Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode are replaced by one dashboard.
2. Worktree collisions: Isolated worktrees mean parallel agents never fight over the same files.
3. Context switching: A single overview of branch, status and task makes it easy to pick up where an agent left off.

Pricing

Orca is free and open source under the MIT license. The core app runs locally on desktop and mobile with no hosted lock-in, and an Enterprise tier is offered for larger teams. Costs are effectively your own subscription fees for the coding agents you already pay for.

Advantages & Unique Selling Points

1. Worktree isolation by default: Parallel agents are safe to run because each one operates in its own git worktree.
2. Cross-agent support: One environment handles Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Cursor CLI and more, instead of one tool per agent.
3. Desktop plus mobile: The mobile companion is rare in this category and lets you monitor sessions from a phone.

What Makes It Stand Out: Orca treats running many agents as the normal case, not an afterthought. Its combination of worktrees, remote sync, tasks and built-in editing makes it closer to an "agent IDE" than a terminal multiplexer.

Getting Started

Quick Start Guide

1. Download: Install the desktop app from the Orca website for macOS, Windows or Linux, or build from the GitHub repository.
2. Connect an agent: Point Orca at an installed coding agent CLI such as Claude Code or Codex.
3. Launch sessions: Start agents in isolated worktrees and follow their live output in the overview.
4. Scale up: Add more agents, use the mobile companion, or configure tasks and automations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which agents does Orca support?

Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Cursor CLI and other CLI-based coding agents. Any agent you can run in a terminal can be run inside Orca.

Do I need an Orca subscription?

No. The core is free and open source. You still need your own subscriptions or API keys for the coding agents themselves.

How does Orca compare to a terminal multiplexer like tmux or cmux?

Multiplexers keep terminals organized but know nothing about agents. Orca understands sessions, worktrees, branches and tasks, so it can show status, isolate changes and automate work instead of just stacking panes.

Alternatives

If Orca is not the right fit, consider these alternatives:

• cmux: Terminal multiplexer focused on managing Claude Code sessions.
• OpenCode: Open-source coding agent CLI with a strong terminal workflow.
• Claude Code: Anthropic's official coding agent, which Orca can run alongside others.

Tips & Best Practices

1. One worktree per task: Give each agent its own branch and ticket so parallel runs stay independent.
2. Use the remote server: If you work on two machines, keeping sessions in one place saves you from closing and reopening agents.
3. Automate the boring loops: Move recurring cleanup, test or review steps into Orca Tasks so they run on schedule.

Conclusion

Orca ADE addresses the real bottleneck of agent-heavy development: keeping many parallel agents organized, isolated and visible. It is free, open source, and mature enough that thousands of developers run their daily agent work through it. If you use more than one coding agent, it is worth trying.