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Run orca <command> --help for every flag. Where a command takes [agent] or another positional in brackets, leaving it out in a terminal opens a picker; in a script it is required. An <agent> is an agent ID or the name of exactly one agent.

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Sign-in and setup

See install and sign in.

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Chat

  • With no prompt in a terminal, orca chat opens a conversation. Ctrl-C cancels a running turn on the server, then exits and prints the command that resumes the session.
  • With a prompt or piped input it runs one turn and streams the answer to stdout. The session ID goes to stderr, so a script can continue with --session.
  • Without --session it creates a session first, with no sandbox. --sandbox gives it a managed sandbox, --template builds the sandbox from an environment template, and --vault lets its tools use a vault’s credentials.
When a turn ends because Orca credit or your provider account’s quota ran out, orca chat in a terminal says which, shows the warning about switching, and asks whether to top up or switch who pays for this session. Outside a terminal it prints the reason and the session ID and exits 1. See switch who pays.

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Agents and sessions

The file for agents create is the body of POST /v1/agents. The model says who pays:
In a terminal, a file with no model opens a picker of every model you can use, grouped by who pays. The server checks every field and the CLI prints its message. See models and provider keys.

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Skills, vaults, and files

Creating and deleting vaults and credentials needs the admin role. credentials add reads the token from --token, stdin, or a hidden prompt.

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Kits

See kits.

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API keys

keys create prints the key once. In a pipe, stdout carries only the key: ORCA_API_KEY=$(orca keys create ci </dev/null).

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Billing and usage

billing buy and billing manage need the admin role. They print the Polar link and open it in a browser. See wallet and credit and plans.

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MCP server

See use Orca from coding agents.

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Output

  • --json on any list or get command prints the raw API response.
  • When stdout is not a terminal, output is plain tab-separated lines, so orca agents list | cut -f1 works.
  • List commands take --limit N (1 to 100, default 10), --after <id>, and --all.

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Commands that ended

CLI 1.0 removed the commands for features that ended with Orca 1.x: run and runs, pools, workflows, memory, storage, stats, topology, bundles, apps, secrets (now vaults), credit, billing cap, agents publish and agents keys, and the MCP server catalog (mcp list, mcp add, and the rest). kit add is now kits copy. Running one of them gives unknown command. See bring your agents to the new Orca.