Orca is an application for running and coordinating multiple coding agents, giving each agent an isolated Git worktree while tracking their work in one place. Developers use it to run agents such as Codex, ClaudeCode, OpenCode, or Pi in parallel across desktop, mobile, local terminals, or remote servers.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to stablyai/orca. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stablyai/orca/main/AGENTS.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/stablyai/orcaWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/stablyai/orca/agents-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/stablyai/orca/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/stablyai/orca/agents-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/stablyai/orca/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/stablyai/orca/agents-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00919 | $0.00919 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00368 | $0.00368 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00184 | $0.00184 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00092 | $0.00092 |
Grade A, and why
orca AGENTS.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured today.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
Copies of this mod
1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:
- orca AGENTS.md — 100% identical, 124 lines differ
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 70 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Useful Commands
- Before handoff:
pnpm check:changed --maxWorkers=2(format, lint, typecheck, affected tests, ratchets; cached when nothing changed) - Typecheck:
pnpm tc(ortc:node/tc:cli/tc:web) - Test:
pnpm test [path/to/file.test.ts]; affected only:pnpm test:changed [path] --maxWorkers=2(details) - Lint:
oxlint; format:pnpm format
Design System
All UI work — layout, color, typography, spacing, component selection, UX behavior — must follow docs/STYLEGUIDE.md. Use the tokens defined in src/renderer/src/assets/main.css (the canonical source) and the shadcn primitives in src/renderer/src/components/ui/. Don't invent new color values, font sizes, or shadow tiers when a documented one already covers the role. Read the docs/styleguide/ deep dive it links only when your change touches that topic. When STYLEGUIDE.md is silent, follow the resolution order in its final section.
Electron UI Validation
Always run tests and agent-launched apps in the background with ORCA_BACKGROUND_LAUNCH=1.
Never steal monitor focus or reveal test windows: no show(), showInactive(), bringToFront(),
app.focus(), or OS activation. Use CDP screenshots of hidden renderers. Keep native-focus and visible-window tests paused on the user's desktop; run them on an isolated display or CI.
Rebuild modified launch-policy code before running an app; stale build wrappers are not safe.
Use the $electron skill and Playwright CDP for rendered Orca UI checks. Do not use computer-use for Orca UI validation.
Screenshot presentational components without Electron: pnpm fixtures:shot <id>.
Code Style
Reuse Before Reimplementing
Before writing new logic at any scale — a function, component, IPC channel, state store, or whole subsystem/flow — check whether an existing implementation already does the job. Extend or generalize it instead of building a parallel version.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- today Changed · -71 tokens per session 70aaa769fba7
- yesterday Changed · -11 tokens per session 56763741be08
- 3d ago Changed · +1 lines · +70 tokens per session ce082c0e2720
- 4d ago Changed · +2 lines · +72 tokens per session 97793af119b1
- 6d ago Changed · -78 lines · -2,230 tokens per session be5141c066c6
- 12d ago Changed · +8 lines · +226 tokens per session c0a37a79823f
- 14d ago Changed · +51 tokens per session 41db87ff3137
- 15d ago Changed · +1 lines · +77 tokens per session 04c45afd2160
- 16d ago Changed · -2 tokens per session c7cee2a3524d
- 19d ago First seen · 136 lines · 2,737 tokens per session scan A b090abcbabcc
orca AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository stablyai/orca (107,099 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 919 tokens to every session, about $0.0037 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.
Other instructions, from other repositories
vscode buildNext.instructions.md
Working notes and architecture documentation for the new esbuild-based build system in build/next. Use when making changes to the new build pipeline (transpile/bundle commands, NLS plugin, source-map handling, resource copying, or self-hosting watch tasks).
next.js AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for vercel/next.js, covering next.js development guide, codebase structure, monorepo overview, core package: packages/next and other important packages.
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.md
Instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code oss third-party-notices pipeline, architecture, pipeline flow in ci, cache eligibility and rollout and applying the notice (cutover).
langchain AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for langchain-ai/langchain, covering global development guidelines for the langchain monorepo, corridor security analysis, project architecture and context, monorepo structure and development tools & commands.
vscode copilot-instructions.md
Copilot instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code copilot instructions, project overview, root folders, core architecture (src/ folder) and built-in extensions (extensions/ folder).
deno copilot-instructions.md
Copilot instructions for denoland/deno, covering deno development guide for github copilot, network access, high level overview, key directories and key files to understand first.