orbstack-best-practices

A reference guide for using OrbStack, a macOS tool that runs Linux virtual machines and Docker containers. It covers machine commands, file transfers, Docker, Kubernetes, and configuration.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when working with OrbStack Linux machines, Docker on macOS, the orb command-line tool, or machine settings.
Why use it?
It helps avoid guessing the commands for creating, starting, stopping, accessing, and configuring OrbStack machines.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/alleneubank/claude-code/orbstack-best-practices
Any agent
npx skills add alleneubank/claude-code --skill orbstack-best-practices
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alleneubank/claude-code

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 32 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,028 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00032 $0.01028
Opus 5 $0.00016 $0.00514
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00206
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00103

Measured 2d ago against content hash 9e1d3919ad0c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

orbstack-best-practices scanned grade B with 1 finding 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 2d ago.

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.

Asks for rootmediumPrivilege escalation

A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.

**Rosetta x86 error**: `sudo dpkg --add-architecture amd64 && sudo apt install libc6:amd64`
.claude/skills/orbstack-best-practices/SKILL.md · 114 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 114 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

OrbStack Best Practices

OrbStack is a fast Docker and Linux VM runtime for macOS. Replaces Docker Desktop with better performance and seamless macOS integration.

Core Commands

# Machine lifecycle
orb list                               # List machines
orb create ubuntu:noble myvm           # Create (distro:version name)
orb create --arch amd64 ubuntu x86vm  # x86 emulation via Rosetta
orb create ubuntu myvm -c cloud.yml   # With cloud-init
orb start/stop/restart/delete myvm
orb default myvm                       # Set default machine

# Shell and exec
orb                           # Shell into default machine
orb -m myvm -u root           # Specific machine + user
orb -m myvm ./script.sh       # Run command in machine

# File transfer
orb push ~/local.txt          # Copy to default machine home
orb pull ~/remote.txt         # Copy from default machine
orb push -m vm ~/f.txt /tmp/  # Specific machine + path

# Docker/K8s
orb restart docker            # Restart Docker engine
orb logs docker               # Docker engine logs
orb start k8s / orb delete k8s

# Config
orb config set memory_mib 8192
orb config set cpu 4
orb config set rosetta true
orb config set network_proxy http://proxy:8080

Key Paths

Location Path
Linux files from macOS ~/OrbStack/<machine>/
Docker volumes from macOS ~/OrbStack/docker/volumes/
macOS files from Linux /mnt/mac/Users/... (also at same path directly)
Other machines from Linux /mnt/machines/<name>/
SSH key ~/.orbstack/ssh/id_ed25519
Docker daemon config ~/.orbstack/config/docker.json

Networking (OrbStack-Specific)

Servers in Linux machines are automatically available on localhost on macOS — no port mapping required.

DNS names:

Pattern Resolves to
<machine>.orb.local Linux VM
<container>.orb.local Docker container
<svc>.<project>.orb.local Compose service
host.orb.internal macOS host (from Linux machine)
host.docker.internal macOS host (from container)

Read the full file on GitHub · 114 lines

Changes

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.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 114 lines · 32 tokens per session scan B 9e1d3919ad0c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

orbstack-best-practices is a skill published in the GitHub repository alleneubank/claude-code (52 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 32 tokens to every session and 1,028 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (asks for root). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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