About orca-cli
orca-cli is a discovery skill that directs users to the guide matching the Orca executable selected for the current session. It gives rules for choosing and reusing that executable, then defers command details to the guide and the executable's help.
Key features
- 01Selects an executable for the session
- 02Reuses the selected executable for commands
- 03Loads a version-matched guide first
- 04Uses help for undocumented commands and flags
Use cases
- 01Resolving which Orca executable to run
- 02Loading command guidance for the current Orca version
- 03Handling unavailable commands without guessing
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
npx skills add https:/ / github.com/ ladderchaos/ orca-backend --skill orca-cliAfter installing, type/orca-cliin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Details
From the project READMEOrca CLI
This discovery stub loads the version-matched guide from the Orca executable used for this session.
Resolve the CLI for this session
Choose the executable once and reuse it for every later command:
- If the
ORCA_CLI_COMMANDenvironment 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, useorca-dev. - Otherwise, on Linux outside an Orca-managed terminal, use
orca-ide. Never run bareorcathere — 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.
Load the version-matched guide before running Orca commands
ORCA skills get orca-cli
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 the backend with
ORCA open --json and retry. This fork starts without Electron or a desktop window.
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.