orca

Git Graph, on-phone dictation & side questions in chat ✨

• 🌳 See the whole repository: A new Git Graph tab shows local and remote branches and tags, with each commit's details and changed files. Folder workspaces now get Source Control, with a card for each attached repo, and the branch name in Source Control switches or creates a branch in place.
• 💬 Ask without derailing a chat: In Chat UI, /btw asks a side question in a fork beside the chat while the original keeps running, and /fork branches from the latest response. Chats that open or push to a pull request show a short line when its CI passes or fails.
• 🎙️ Dictate from anywhere: Phones can turn speech into text on the device (iPhone on iOS 26 or later, and Android), with the computer as fallback. The computer, phones and web client can dictate at the same time, and on-device dictation runs in its own process, so a speech engine crash or hang no longer takes Orca down.
• 📱 A phone that holds on to your work: Chat sends queue while the desktop is unreachable and go out in order when it's back. Chat drafts, attachments, unsaved file edits and automation drafts survive the app being killed, and screens reopen from what the phone already has.
• ⌨️ No more typing lag from Codex accounts: Typing could lag across Orca while it linked Codex history between accounts. That work no longer blocks the app. Remote terminals also send a lone keystroke right away and read compressed output from remote hosts.
• 🔐 Safer pairing and trust: A pairing code stops working once the device that used it saves its own sign-in, desktop and CLI connections to remote servers use the newer encryption, and orca serve refuses connections from public internet addresses unless there's a reason to allow them. Orca asks once per new repo before trusting it for agents.
• 🎨 Make Orca yours: Import your own app icon, let theme plugins play a looping background video and ship their own fonts, and read Settings in titled cards. Claude Code can match your Orca terminal theme if you say yes.
• 🤖 Better agent support: Antigravity chats can run on the host's own agy, including Full access chats, and Muse shows its subscription quota in the status bar.

Highlights

• Chat: /btw asks a side question in a fork and /fork forks from the latest response, with a spinner while the fork opens. Chats show CI results for the pull requests they opened or pushed to, and every waiting message, command and steer now sits in one ordered queue you can move, delete or send from.
• Phone: Send while the desktop is offline, keep drafts, attachments, file edits and automation drafts across app kills, and see the workspace list, session tabs and Review from memory while they refresh. Large folders load 500 entries at a time with Search all, Review prefetches the next and previous file, and a thin line under the header shows when cached data is refreshing.
• Dictation: Phones can transcribe on the device, and every device can dictate at once. On desktop the speech model loads before your first dictation (a new setting chooses when to unload it), dictation stops after a minute of silence and keeps what you said, dictated text gets a space before it, and text that can't be inserted is copied instead. The paired web client can dictate through the host.
• Source control & editor: Git Graph, Source Control for folder workspaces, and an in-place branch picker in the Source Control header. Wholly new and deleted files show one clean tint, Markdown keeps its syntax colors under plugin themes, HTML previews open in the editor's own tab group, and Copy as PNG says when an image is too large instead of claiming it copied.
• Agents & accounts: The Codex account-history typing lag is fixed. Antigravity chats can run on the host's agy when it's signed in, Antigravity sessions in AI Vault can reveal their artifacts folder, and Muse shows its quota and keeps panes working while b

A little update ✨

We released two updates today! Check out the v1.4.252 release notes for chat forking and Plan mode, a smoother phone experience, and workspace organization across machines.

A small release with a few minor improvements. A bigger one is coming later 🫣

What's changed

• Reduce repeated work during host-status updates by @nwparker in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/39340
• Reduce process launches when reading Linux process start times by @OrcaWin in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/39439
• Dim the chat message rail until hover, focus or scroll by @nwparker in https://github.com/stablyai/orca/pull/39369

Full Changelog: https://github.com/stablyai/orca/compare/v1.4.252...v1.4.253

Fork chats from any reply, Plan mode & a faster phone ✨

• 📱 A smoother experience on your phone: The phone opens and reconnects sooner, scrolls and streams chats more smoothly, reads Markdown and math better, and keeps unsent chat, review and Tasks text across reconnects.
• 🗂️ Organize workspaces across machines: Nest workspaces under a folder workspace, including workspaces on other machines.
• 🌿 Do more with Chat UI: Fork any finished response to try another direction while the original chat stays as it was. In Claude or Codex chats, type /plan to switch to Plan mode, which persists when you reopen the chat.
• 🖥️ A more reliable terminal: Terminal panes keep their zoom and restored scrollback, copied files paste as full paths, and busy terminal output takes less work to render.
• 🤖 Better agent support: Open running subagents from chat, see proposed files and diffs in Codex approvals, answer OpenCode choice questions, and sign in to Antigravity Chat with Gemini Enterprise.
• 🎙️ Better dictation: Pick your dictation language, keep the first and last words, see Listening while the model loads, and get on-device text back about a third sooner.
• 🧭 Know where a chat runs: The chat composer shows the machine, workspace and branch, and chats show a card for each pull request the agent opens.
• ⚡ Snappier desktop chats: One chat's status change no longer wakes every chat, the model picker opens without walking every worktree, and long replies stream without re-rendering.

Highlights

• Chat: Fork from any finished response, use Plan mode in Claude and Codex chats, and open a running subagent from the agents strip. Codex approvals show the proposed files and diffs, OpenCode can ask choice questions, and Claude's built-in server tools show as normal tool cards. Holding Cmd/Ctrl in a busy chat shows what Cmd/Ctrl+Enter will do, app shortcuts work from the chat editor, and oversized pasted images shrink to fit instead of failing. Signed-out OpenCode, Pi and OMP chats offer a Sign in button.
• Phone: Markdown is easier to read and renders math, GitHub alerts, task boxes and images. Rename a workspace from its menu, see automatic continue and Switch Account on usage-limit notices, and keep chat sends, PR text, review notes and Tasks drafts when a connection drops. The phone dials the relay right away when that worked last time, keeps terminal output across a network switch, and streams busy terminals without falling behind.
• Agents & accounts: Antigravity Chat can sign in with Gemini Enterprise, reports quota for every saved account and manages accounts inside WSL. orca account can select and remove any saved account. Antigravity IDE joins the Open In presets.
• Remote hosts: SSH says plainly when a host now serves a different Orca server, disconnects a host whose server you stopped, and honors IdentitiesOnly on manual hosts. Sleeping recipe VMs wake when any client opens them, orca serve can bind to one address, and browsing through a paired server is faster on high-latency links. Browser tabs show when an SSH host is controlling them, with a way to stop it.
• Source control & Tasks: Phone branch switches are refused with a plain reason when they would move uncommitted work or land mid-rebase. Checks show when they ran and how long they took. Tasks can filter GitHub PRs and GitLab MRs by state and by who wrote or reviews them, and pasted images upload before a GitHub draft is published.
• Workspaces & plugins: Multi-repo folder workspaces can parent workspaces, and workspaces can nest under parents on other machines. orca plugin installs, updates and removes plugins and manages catalogs, plugin pages show more about their publisher, and look-alike plugin names show who published them.

Compatibility & upgrade notes

• macOS 13.4 minimum: Orca now needs macOS 13.4 or later (previously macOS 12). Macs on older versions stay on their last compatible build

Richer phone chats, add-to-chat from anywhere & steadier terminals ✨

• 📱 Much more chat on the phone: Rewind to an earlier message, continue a stopped reply, pin the agent's plan above the composer, paste images and long text, manage a chat's goal and see context usage, with unsent drafts kept across an app restart.
• 📎 Add anything to chat: Send a selection from a file, a Markdown preview or a terminal to any agent in the workspace, or start a new agent with it.
• 🔁 Chats pick up after a restart: New installs resume working chats automatically after Orca quits or updates, and resuming is more reliable for everyone who has it on.
• 🤖 Workers can start their own workers: Nested workers are allowed by default, finished workers can keep messaging their coordinator, and stopping a worker stops its helpers.
• ⚡ Faster everyday work: Launch skips a second login-shell capture, source control and the tab bar do less repeated work, and long chats stay responsive.
• 🖥️ Steadier terminals: Terminals re-attach after a daemon reconnect, survive a busy app, and new GPU canvases no longer flash blank.
• 🗂️ Easier project organization: Collapse or expand all projects, create a child worktree from the context menu and refresh folder project groups.

Highlights

• Chat: Add a file, Markdown preview or terminal selection to a chat. Agent messages use one-line cards on desktop and phone, native chats appear in Cmd+J recents and title search, and Cmd/Ctrl+Enter on an empty composer steers the first queued message. Claude chats keep effort changeable after the first reply and clear a stuck "needs permission" status when Claude ends the request itself. Codex chats show /usage and subagent task names.
• Phone: Rewind and continue chats, pin the plan, paste images and long text, set and manage goals, see the context usage ring, follow background tasks, copy or share images, copy file paths, choose where links open, and sign in from a signed-out chat.
• Orchestration: Workers can start their own workers, keep messaging their coordinator after they finish, and stop their helpers when stopped. Mail waits for a draft you are typing, including in OpenCode and after a restart.
• Performance: Startup, source control conflict badges and branch compares, the tab bar, browser login detection, Pi terminal spawns and plugin catalog images all do less repeated work. Long chats no longer rescan their whole history on every status update. Chats with ACP agents also stop holding on to finished tool and message records for the chat's whole life.
• Terminals & remote hosts: Terminals re-attach after a daemon reconnect and keep their link through a main-process freeze. SSH explains when a host's server setup stops on a known cause and stops restarting a server that keeps crashing. Server actions reconnect a disconnected server.

Compatibility & upgrade notes

• Nested worker depth: The default is now 4. Existing profiles set to 1 move to 4 on upgrade; you can set it back in Settings, and Orca keeps that choice.
• Resume working chats after restart: On by default for new installs only. Existing users keep their saved choice, and existing profiles that never chose stay off.
• Claude permission status: Clearing a "needs permission" status that Claude ended itself needs Claude 2.1.118 or later. Orca installs one more managed Claude hook for it; older Claude versions keep the previous behavior.
• macOS updates: Macs below a release's minimum macOS stay on their last compatible build and get a one-time notice. The minimum is still macOS 12, so nothing changes yet.
• Chat UI menu: "Fork Agent Session…" is no longer in Chat UI's menu. Terminals keep it.

Product experience

Native chat & agents

Bring more context into chats, keep long chats responsive and smooth out Claude, Codex and OpenCode details.

• Add a file, markdown preview or terminal selection to the chat by @brennanb