Orca Release Notes

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

Remote Server is an experimental feature and may have bugs. Remote Server 2.0 is coming this week and will eliminate most of them.

The short version

• Security fix for Copilot: When Orca marked a folder as trusted for GitHub Copilot, it could leave ~/.copilot/config.json readable by other users on the same machine. That file can hold your Copilot login tokens. v1.4.219 and v1.4.220 did this on SSH hosts too, where other people often share the machine. The file is now owner-only after Orca writes to it. A file an older Orca already opened up is fixed the next time Orca adds a new folder to it.
• Codex on Windows uses your own ~/.codex: Codex in Orca now uses the same folder as Codex outside Orca, as it already did on macOS and Linux. If you only signed in inside Orca, that sign-in is copied over so you stay logged in. Codex may ask again to trust a folder or approve a command, and MCP servers you added only inside Orca need to be added again; a one-time message explains this. Codex terminals that were open before the update keep working on Orca's old folder, keep their Orca-only MCP servers, and no longer show a restart dialog.
• Codex workers: worker-start now accepts max and ultra effort for Codex models Orca doesn't list yet, such as the gpt-6.x models, instead of refusing them. …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

This patch is built from the October 2 daily build plus fixes picked from main. Pull requests that landed on main after that are not in this build.

The short version

• Native chat (experimental): The "Stop" button ends Claude's process, including background commands and subagents. If Codex refuses or never answers a stop request, Orca ends it too. Unsent messages stay unsent until Retry, steered messages are not duplicated, and interrupted turns show a clearer status.
• Chat polish: /clear switches chats immediately; the first message starts the new agent. Codex connection retries update one warning instead of stacking errors. You can send AI notes to open chats, and older Orca versions preserve newer chat histories as read-only.
• Agent status: Esc cancellation settles Codex panes promptly, while Ctrl+C used to copy or leave /side no longer looks like an interruption. OpenCode shows failed and stopped turns correctly. Slow SSH connections no longer make agents look gone.
• Usage meters: Antigravity shows its own quota without Gemini CLI sign-in or spending quota to check. Cursor sign-in checks no longer freeze on large databases or mistake a refused usage request for an expired login. …

What's Changed

• fix: show unexpected signout notice only once across versions by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/20526
• test(mobile): consolidate the RPC migration's verification infrastructure by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/20521
• refactor(attention): move the agent attention boundary off terminal panes by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/20525
• fix(grok): defer managed hook pane guard expansion to shell by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/20534
• fix(auth): report callback failures instead of cancellation by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/20535
• perf(skills): bound WSL installed skill discovery by @PPP-JH in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/12314
• fix(git): skip upstream remote probes when the remote is absent by @innocarpe in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18455
• refactor(orchestration): derive delivery eligibility from messages by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/19837
• fix(ssh): bound relay incumbent lsof probe by @kaluli123123 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18304
• perf(remote): avoid repeated capability probes during file imports by @dngur6344 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/14555
• fix(grok): announce a completion once, when Grok is actually finished by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/20523 …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

This patch is built from the September 30 daily build plus fixes picked from main. Pull requests that landed on main after that are not in this build.

The short version

Codex terminals: When a Codex tab ends up sharing one background server with your other Codex tabs, a notice now appears at the top of that tab. On that server, closing one tab can end the others and agent status can be wrong. The notice offers a Fix that turns the sharing off and shows the exact command it runs. In a terminal that was opened before the update, it offers to open a new terminal instead. Typing codex in a plain fish tab now runs Codex on its own server, as it already did in zsh and bash. Opening a terminal no longer removes Orca's status hook from ~/.codex. Orca no longer writes a second copy of a folder's trust entry into Codex's config.toml, which stopped every codex command from working, and it cleans up copies it already wrote. The background Codex usage check no longer clicks "Update now" in Codex's update prompt and leaves Codex broken. Codex also starts without a trust prompt in worktrees of a bare repository. A Codex pane no longer freezes for about a second while you type. …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

This patch is built from the September 29 daily build plus fixes picked from main. Pull requests that landed on main after that are not in this build.

The short version

Codex terminals: Settings → Agents has a new "Run each Codex terminal on its own server" switch. It's on by default, which keeps agent status and closing tabs working correctly. Turn it off to go back to Codex's shared server and its agents overview. The switch applies to new terminals. A one-time notice explains the change and links to the switch. Codex started from a cmd.exe tab, by its full path, or after "wait for setup" finishes now runs on its own server too. A busy Codex 0.150–0.157 tab no longer shows as idle, and orchestration workers wait out Codex 0.157's startup screen before their brief is typed.

More agents: DeepSeek Harness, Freebuff, Qoder, and CodeBuddy are built in: you can launch them from Orca, and their status shows in the sidebar. ZCode CLI conversations appear in session history, and its Coding Plan quota shows in usage. …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

This patch is built from the September 27 daily build plus fixes picked from main. Pull requests that landed on main after that are not in this build.

The short version

Codex: Codex workers start again on current Codex (0.158). Orca had been waiting for a welcome-screen label that Codex 0.158 removed, so every Codex worker timed out; Orca now recognizes Codex's empty input box instead. Starting a Codex worker with a model or reasoning effort no longer hangs either.

Codex tabs run on their own: On Codex 0.157 and newer, every Codex tab in Orca shared one background server started by the first tab, so status and results were credited to the wrong tab and closing the first tab dropped all the others. Each Codex tab in an Orca terminal now runs its own server, so closing one no longer drops the others. New terminals opened after updating get this; terminals already open keep the old behavior until reopened. To keep the shared server, add export ORCA_CODEX_ISOLATE=0 to your shell startup file. The trade-off of the default: Codex "Run in background", codex agents, and opening a session from the Codex desktop app or an IDE won't see sessions started in Orca, and many open tabs use more memory. …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

This patch is v1.4.215 plus one fix. Pull requests that landed on main after v1.4.215 are not in this build.

The short version

Status bar: On smaller screens and narrow windows, the status bar now stays on a single line instead of wrapping or getting cut off.

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Fixes

When the window is narrow, the status bar condenses its items so everything fits on one line.

• Fix status bar on smaller screen by @AmethystLiang in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/23587

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Full Changelog: https://github.com/stablyai/orca/compare/v1.4.215...v1.4.216

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

This patch is v1.4.214 plus one fix. Pull requests that landed on main after v1.4.214 are not in this build.

The short version

Profile: When the JSON and SQLite copies of your profile disagree, Orca asks whether to keep SQLite or JSON and applies that choice for you.

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Product experience

Both copies are readable, but they disagree. Orca shows each copy's last-saved time and lets you pick one, instead of handing you a command to run.

• feat: let users choose JSON or SQLite when profile copies diverge by @OrcaWin in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/23278

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Full Changelog: https://github.com/stablyai/orca/compare/v1.4.214...v1.4.215

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

The short version

Notebooks: Interactive .ipynb notebooks now render natively with click-to-edit cells, backed by a persistent Jupyter kernel, automatic virtual environment setup when pip is locked out, and trust boundaries before workspace interpreter execution.

Agents & chat: Native chat displays real-time context window usage in the composer, adds a hover copy button to sent messages, auto-loads older history on scroll, and lets Codex 0.157+ start cleanly in Orca-managed homes without path-length failures (SUN_LEN). Subagent and child work status is tracked across Codex, Claude, Pi, and Grok, while ZCode joins as a first-class supported harness.

Terminal, editor & workspaces: Single terminal panes gain an explicit close button, remounted SSH tabs keep spawning their shell, and managed WSL terminals automatically provide the Orca CLI. Workspace folder toggles are instant, AI notes UI is revamped, and large file identities on Windows stay distinct.

Persistence & performance: Profile storage migrates to SQLite with background writes and bundled Bun for headless Orca. Bundled ripgrep powers local, WSL, and SSH searches, while concurrent transcript reads, readiness probes, and terminal marker scans receive major latency cuts. …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

The short version

Agents & chat: Native chat keeps its live tool state intact, shows Codex goals above the composer, and treats active child work as working. Muse Code is now a first-class supervised-worker harness with local usage reporting.

Workspaces, editor & browser: Large local workspaces can find files by name, preview tabs can be turned off, stale workspace listings cannot retire newly created workspaces, and browser shortcuts stay with the split or floating panel that received them.

Terminal, remote & reliability: Background-created terminals answer startup queries, explicit closes get enough time for a daemon verdict, and macOS adoption and folder-denial events carry code-identity telemetry. Asia relay capacity grows safely with cell-specific gates, lock-convoy alerts, and safer rehoming.

Mobile: The OTA page gains device Back support, safer draft handling, clearer re-pair and update recovery, and capability-negotiated, gzipped bundle ranges.

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Product experience

Editor, workspaces & browser

Workspace lists stay correct, large folders are easier to search, editor behavior is configurable, and browser commands stay in their originating view.

• fix(cli): describe Linear write support by @AtejiMan in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/21830 …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

The short version

Agents & chat: Finished chats collapse to their answers, failed turns end instead of hanging, unread lights up when a structured chat finishes, and restart recovery stays in the status bar. Antigravity can run as a supervised worker, and terminal launches report back the pane they created.

Terminal, editor & workspaces: Terminal theme choice overrides Ghostty colors, the Linux daemon survives service restarts and reaps cleanly, and macOS tells you how to fix folder access. Large artifact and conflict lists are virtualized, stale search listings are fixed, and Monaco failures stay contained.

Remote & reliability: WSL guests keep the OpenCode agent variant, recreated SSH targets keep their generation floor, and same-cap relay waves clean up failed templates without touching the backend service.

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Product experience

Agents, chat & launches

Structured chats settle cleanly, launches carry their context, and workspace lists stay responsive.

• fix(sidebar): stop a workspace with a structured chat reading as asleep by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/22098
• Fix stale listings when search query changes by @AmethystLiang in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/22173
• Virtualize artifacts list with reusable component by @AmethystLiang in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/22061 …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

The short version

Agents & chat: Session search now shows the newest activity first, and launch prompts go straight to terminal agents. OpenCode, Claude, Pi, Antigravity and Devin launches are more reliable. Usage totals now price GPT-6, Opus 5.5 and Fable 5.1, and Codex usage no longer goes stale after a reset.

Terminal, editor & workspaces: Drag selection holds steady during redraws, middle-click paste works in mouse-tracking TUIs, and remote panes keep their scrollback across restarts. PDF zoom sticks across tabs and restarts, the new-worktree dialog keeps its buttons in view while you scroll, and large artifact and conflict lists stay fast.

Remote & reliability: WSL, SSH and Windows setups recover more cleanly, and relay rehomes and cell rollouts handle failures without taking a cell down.

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Product experience

Agents, chat & search

Search is easier to trust, agent launches are more direct, and large workspace lists stay responsive.

• feat(agent-launch): deliver a launch prompt to a terminal agent by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/21891
• feat(session-search): sort search results by newest, and break relevance ties by recency by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/21863
• Virtualize artifacts list with reusable component by @AmethystLiang in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/22061 …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

This is a patch on top of v1.4.206.

The short version

File search: Quick Open and the file explorer no longer flash the previous results while a new search is loading.

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Product experience

File search

A new query shows nothing from the last one until its own results arrive.

• Fix stale listings when search query changes by @AmethystLiang in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/22173

Full Changelog: https://github.com/stablyai/orca/compare/v1.4.206...v1.4.207

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

Please note: It usually takes 48–72 hours for a landed PR to be released (except P0+ fixes). We have many more exciting PRs and features coming in later versions!

The short version

Agents & chat: Search your agent session history from the panel, across computers, and from orca search. OpenCode 2 is also now supported. Native chat treats plans as plans, reconnects chats that were running when Orca restarted, and OMP can pick models on desktop and mobile. Source Control AI can generate with OMP.

Workspaces, editor & source control: The compact branch picker is back in the composer, New Workspace can choose a base ref, and diffs can collapse unchanged regions. Review comments support multi-line ranges. Worktree create prefers Git first; WSL delete will not take the twin branch.

Terminal & remote: Pick a default terminal shell, search with a match count and Cmd+F parity, and configure URL-click / middle-click. Windows terminals spawn as the shell you asked for. Usage scans for Claude, Codex and OpenCode now run on a worker thread.

Mobile: Desktop can serve a mobile web bundle over the air. Tasks, files and agent history start moving onto that page shell, with clearer Back controls and a honest “host unreachable” state instead of an endless Connecting via Relay.

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Product experience

Workspaces, tabs & editor …

What's Changed

• Keep the floating workspace above a working native chat pane by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18692
• feat(relay-infra): dynamic NAT ports and alerts for the 2026-09-04 stall signals by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18693
• fix(orca-profiles): tell the renderer when a cloud session is revoked by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18694
• feat(relay): tell the phone when its desktop is signed out by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18698
• perf(orchestration): bound the worker terminal archive in linear time by @nwparker in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18622
• fix(startup): apply the HTTP/1.1 compatibility toggle for migrated profiles, and stop parsing the settings file pre-ready by @nwparker in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18621
• perf(git): overlap the three independent submodule status reads by @nwparker in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18623
• test(renderer): pin the runtime-target selector identity stability that #18685 fixed by @nwparker in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18625
• perf(terminal): stop copying every PTY chunk for two startup-error detectors by @nwparker in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18626
• perf(terminal): gate the Command Code banner scan before building its scan windows by @nwparker in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/18628 …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

Please note: It usually takes 48–72 hours for a landed PR to be released (except P0+ fixes). We have many more exciting PRs and features coming in later versions!

The short version

Agents & chat: Native chat adds a message rail for jumping between your prompts, keeps a resumed transcript pinned to its end, holds a detached reader in place as messages grow, and cancels pending prompts precisely. OMP conversations resume from session history under their saved names, agent-status ingress moves behind a single admission point, and a timed-out hook now actually terminates its process tree.

Workspaces, editor & source control: A failed archive hook blocks worktree removal instead of deleting anyway, and worktree registrations survive prunable git-file states. Stage, unstage and discard failures surface with retry, automations repair cron step expansion and stop tick latency counting against the missed-run grace, code blocks gain a copy button, and Tiptap moves up behind Markdown compatibility guards.

Terminal & remote: Terminal renames survive pane hydration, handles persist across PTY incarnation rotation, and PTY child-process checks preserve an unverifiable verdict instead of guessing. Relay failures become diagnosable by acquisition versus execution phase, and streamed remote records are bounded. …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

Please note: It usually takes 48–72 hours for a landed PR to be released (except P0+ fixes). We have many more exciting PRs and features coming in later versions!

The short version

Agents & chat: Native chat adds file drag-and-drop and provider-aware Fast mode, resumes structured chats cleanly after restart, hides idle activity, and fixes tail-read cursor and Claude-turn reopening; Grok completion/hook attribution and Claude SessionEnd handling are more correct, and agent status keys rows by agent instead of pane.

Workspaces & mobile: Workspaces re-seed after agent selection, recover from activation failures, and retire orphaned chat tabs; mobile continues the typed-RPC migration across settings, source-control, and workspace creation while preserving delivery and fixing streaming jumps.

Performance: Orca batches terminal file-link checks, dispatches browser input in-process, avoids repeated remote capability probes, skips redundant persistence flushes, and bounds WSL skill discovery.

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Product experience

Workspaces, tabs & browser

Safer workspace recovery, more responsive browser input, and clearer project views.

• fix(worktrees): retire the chat tab of a chat with no child when its workspace goes by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/19970 …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

Please note: It usually takes 48–72 hours for a landed PR to be released (except P0+ fixes). We have many more exciting PRs and features coming in later versions!

The short version

Reliability & security: Electron is updated to address a glibc environment use-after-free, browser cookie migration is more reliable, and worktree creation now completes cleanly after post-create failures.

Agents & chat: Native chat recovers restart-stranded sends from provider history, agent status no longer depends on a retained runtime row store, and provider/model validation is more resilient.

Workspaces & mobile: Folder workspaces retain their saved names and groups, sidebar nesting is easier to work with, and mobile restores push, cold-start, notification, Markdown, and workspace-routing behavior.

Performance: Orca reduces cold-switching, browser, terminal, SSH, mobile, history, plugin, and relay overhead across a broad set of targeted improvements.

Product experience

Workspaces, tabs & browser

Safer workspace creation, more reliable browser data, and clearer navigation around your projects.

• fix(browser): decode Chromium SameSite storage values (135 cookies silently lost per profile) by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/20076 …

Thank you so much for using Orca and for your continued support! ❤️

Please note: It usually takes 48–72 hours for a landed PR to be released (except P0+ fixes). We have many more exciting PRs and features coming in later versions!

The short version

Native chat: Claude subagent activity and Codex background tasks are now visible in chat. Completed turns show changed files, and task updates stream into the composer.

Orchestration: Worker-terminal ownership is established at creation. Startup, mobile input, and older federation coordinators have additional recovery safeguards.

Workspace & browser: Background browser tabs load on open, and creating a chat preserves the active worktree.

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Product experience

Workspaces, tabs & browser

Keep the current worktree selected, and trust a newly opened browser tab to be ready when you visit it.

Tabs & browser

• fix(browser): load newly opened background tabs by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/19633
• Unify tab surface selection across workspace activation by @brennanb2025 in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/19635
• fix(native-chat): keep worktree active during chat creation by @Jinwoo-H in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/19753

Agents & workflow

Native chat

The conversation gives you a much better read on what an agent did, is doing, and has delegated.

Agent activity & results …