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The orca CLI manages agents, sessions, skills, vaults, files, kits, keys, and billing from your terminal, and serves Orca to coding agents over MCP. It is a single binary; it does not need Node.

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Install

On macOS and Linux:
The script picks the binary for your system, checks its SHA-256 checksum, and installs it to ~/.local/bin/orca. To pin a version, set ORCA_VERSION=cli-v1.0.0; to install somewhere else, set ORCA_INSTALL_DIR. On Windows, download orca-windows-x64.tar.gz from the releases page. Check it worked:

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Update

orca update needs no login. An older CLI that talks to Orca 2.0 is told “This CLI is too old for Orca. Run orca update.” On Windows, a running .exe cannot replace itself, so download the new release instead.

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Sign in

The CLI signs in with a one-time code, which works anywhere, including over SSH and inside coding agents:
  1. It prints the code and a link to the dashboard: “First, copy your one-time code”, then “Then open:” and the link. In a terminal it opens the link for you.
  2. In the dashboard, check that the code matches and choose Approve. See approve a CLI login.
  3. The CLI receives a new API key with your role and stores it. It prints “Logged in to Orca as” your role and organization.
Use --no-browser to only print the code and link. The login is named after the machine, such as “CLI on laptop”; change it with --label.
Plain orca auth logout forgets the key on this machine only; the key keeps working.

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Where the CLI keeps its key

Keys are stored per context in ~/.config/orca/config.json, readable only by you. A context is a named API URL and key, like a kubectl context: orca context list, orca context use <name>, or --context <name> on one command. The default API URL is https://api.orcapods.ai.

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Use it in CI

CI needs no config file. Set the key in the environment:
Create a key for CI in the dashboard or with orca keys create ci. To store a key without the code flow, use orca login --with-token orca_sk_.... A flag wins over an environment variable, which wins over the config file.

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Check your setup

orca doctor checks the config file, the server, your key and role, and your credit, and prints a fix for each problem it finds. It only reads; it never creates anything. Next: commands, or use Orca from Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.