For months a reviewer kept several AI coding agents alive in separate terminal windows, moving from tab to tab to learn what each was doing, until an open-source app called Orca gathered them into one workspace. Its makers, the San Francisco startup Stably AI, give the tool a name that marks a quiet shift in how software gets built: an Agent Development Environment, a place where a person no longer only writes code but supervises the machines that write it. The reviewer's own experience suggests why such a shelter matters, since much of modern work now lies in coordinating many capable helpers
Orca, an Open-Source Agent Development Environment, Brings Claude Code, Codex, and Other AI Coding Agents Into One Workspace
Orca doesn't replace your coding agents; it hosts the ones you already use.
Mark
What problem is Orca actually solving?
Mimi
Managing the agents, not writing the code. Running Claude Code, Codex, and others in parallel means separate terminals, separate usage limits, and constant checking on who's doing what.
Mark
And how does it keep them from stepping on each other?
Mimi
Git worktrees. Each agent gets its own directory and branch, and Orca handles much of the setup.
Luke
Worth noting this is one reviewer's experience. The piece reads as a favorable hands-on account, not a comparative test.
Mark
The 110,000 GitHub stars is a striking number for a repo made in March 2026.
Luke
It's the reviewer's figure as of writing, and stars measure interest, not usage or quality. The article doesn't say how many people actually run it.
Mimi
Fair. What the review does show is the workflow: assign tasks, watch status indicators, review diffs, comment, commit, all in one window.
Mark
Does it replace existing subscriptions?
Mimi
No. It detects agents already installed, so you keep your accounts.
Luke
One more gap: the article says Orca works with any CLI agent, but that's the project's own claim. The reviewer only describes using a few, like Claude Code, Codex, and Antigravity.
Mark
And the bigger question?
Mimi
Whether tools like this become normal as agents multiply and limits tighten. That's still open.
The Pulse
- Coding agents multiply on the desktop, each in its own terminal, and the reviewer spends more energy switching between them than building.
- Orca arrives as a single workspace where Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot and others sit side by side, detected automatically on first launch.
- Each agent receives its own Git worktree and branch, so parallel changes stop colliding and the reviewer can split panes to watch them work.
- Built-in diffs, inline comments and one-click feedback let the reviewer send corrections back to all agents at once, closing the loop without leaving the app.
- A usage tracker along the bottom now guards against being cut off mid-task by limit notices, and the question of whether such unified tools become standard remains open.
For months a reviewer kept several AI coding agents alive in separate terminal windows, moving from tab to tab to learn what each was doing, until an open-source app called Orca gathered them into one workspace. Its makers, the San Francisco startup Stably AI, give the tool a name that marks a quiet shift in how software gets built: an Agent Development Environment, a place where a person no longer only writes code but supervises the machines that write it. The reviewer's own experience suggests why such a shelter matters, since much of modern work now lies in coordinating many capable helpers at once rather than in typing each line alone. Whether this arrangement settles into everyday practice or remains one convenient option among many is a question the coming months will begin to answer.
For months, the reviewer behind this XDA piece kept AI coding agents running in separate terminal windows, hopping between tabs to check on each one. Then they found Orca, a free open-source app that pulls those agents into a single workspace, and the constant tab-juggling mostly stopped.
Orca calls itself an Agent Development Environment. Where a traditional IDE helps a developer write and debug code, Orca is built to supervise AI agents that do the writing: running several at once, tracking progress, and reviewing their changes. It comes from Stably AI, a San Francisco startup backed by Y Combinator. Its repository appeared only in March 2026 and has already passed 110,000 stars. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Orca does not replace the agents people already use; it hosts them. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and many others can be selected on first launch, with no new accounts and no need to cancel existing subscriptions. The reviewer's core motivation is parallel work. Codex once handled backend tasks well but lagged on frontend, so they paired it with Claude Code, and managing two agents, keeping their edits apart, and merging results grew messy. In Orca, each agent gets its own workspace built on a Git worktree and branch, and panes can be split to watch them side by side.
Review is built in too. A diff viewer shows exactly which lines an agent changed, and the reviewer can comment on those lines and send all feedback back at once. Git staging and commits happen without leaving the app. Launching an agent takes a single click on a + button instead of navigating directories and typing commands.
The reviewer recently built a study app this way, with Claude Code orchestrating the backend, Codex handling learning algorithms, and Antigravity working on the frontend, previewed in an Orca browser tab. A usage tracker shows consumption and reset times across agents, a feature they value after being interrupted by limit notices. They admit that terminals and worktrees could do most of this by hand. Their point is that Orca gathers it all in one place, and whether such tools become standard practice is the question to watch.
For months, the reviewer behind this XDA piece kept AI coding agents running in separate terminal windows, hopping between tabs to see what each was doing. Then came an open-source app called Orca, which pulls those agents into a single workspace, and the tab-juggling mostly stopped.
Orca is what its makers call an Agent Development Environment, or ADE. Where a traditional IDE helps a developer write, edit, and debug code, an ADE is built for supervising AI agents that do the writing: managing several at once, tracking their progress, and reviewing what they change. The tool comes from Stably AI, a San Francisco startup backed by Y Combinator, founded by Jinjing Liang and Neil Parker, who previously worked at Google and Uber respectively.
Its GitHub repository was only created in March 2026, yet the reviewer reports it has already passed 110,000 stars. Orca runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and has companion apps for iOS and Android. It is free.
Orca is not another coding agent. It hosts the ones you already use. According to the project, it works with any CLI agent, including Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Muse, Devin, Kilokode, Qwen Code, and Hermes Agent. The reviewer also mentions Antigravity in their own workflow. Setup means downloading a desktop build from GitHub, or installing through Homebrew on macOS or the AUR on Arch Linux. On first launch, Orca shows which supported agents it detects on your machine and which it doesn't. You pick the ones you want, with no new accounts and no need to drop existing subscriptions.
The parallel-work problem is the reviewer's main motivation. Different agents have different strengths. Until a few months ago, they say, Codex handled backend work well but was weaker on frontend, so they would pair it with Claude Code on the interface. That means tracking two agents, keeping their changes from colliding, and merging the results; a third agent complicates it further. In Orca, you import a Git repository and create a separate workspace for each agent. Orca uses Git worktrees so every agent gets its own working directory and branch, and it handles much of the worktree setup itself. Panes can be split to watch several agents side by side, and status indicators show whether an agent is working, finished, or waiting for you.
Review is built in as well. Orca includes a code editor and diff viewer showing which lines an agent added or removed compared with the original. You can highlight lines, leave comments, and send all the feedback back to the agent at once. Git integration lets you stage changes and commit without opening VS Code or another editor.
Launching an agent is a click on the + button rather than opening a terminal, navigating to a directory, and typing claude or codex. The same menu opens a plain terminal, a browser tab, a Markdown file, or a mobile emulator. The reviewer recently built a study app this way: Claude Code as main orchestrator on the backend, Codex on the learning and assessment algorithms, Antigravity on the frontend. They previewed the result in an Orca browser tab beside the agents.
A usage tracker along the bottom of the interface shows consumption and reset times across agents, which the reviewer values after being cut off mid-task by limit notices.
The reviewer concedes that terminal windows, worktrees, and manual limit-checking could do most of this. Their argument is convenience: Orca gathers it in one place. Whether unified tools like this become standard as agents multiply and usage limits tighten is the thing to watch.
Notable Quotes
Orca is a free, open-source ADE that lets you run multiple AI coding agents from one interface.— XDA reviewer (paraphrased)
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