Two releases today! Check out the v1.4.238 release notes too. That release brought shared unsaved edits across workspaces, richer agent chats and remote account setup, a more capable browser, and smoother phone controls.
Your workspace, working together 🐳
Set up agent skills in one click, keep browser sessions separate between projects, and move more easily between chat and terminal. This release also strengthens the essentials: shared files stay in sync, SSH sessions recover more reliably, and phone interactions feel more predictable.
The short version
- Skills, ready wherever you work: Install Orca’s skills in one click from setup screens, and install or update them on paired servers and SSH hosts with Orca’s own installer.
- A browser that fits your projects: Choose shared, per-repo or per-workspace profiles for new tabs. Keep local app logins separate, use a familiar page context menu, and get clearer explanations when a page cannot load.
- More fluid agent conversations: Split into a fresh chat beside your current one, continue with a terminal agent from the pane header, and keep queued messages and multiple image attachments intact.
- Safer edits, quieter background work: Shared file views stay current after undo and discard. Non-UTF-8 files ask before conversion, file watching recovers after slowdowns, and Orca watches fewer unrelated files.
- Remote work with a way back: Recover supported managed SSH servers from a stale lock in Settings, restore terminals after password sign-in, and keep a paired server’s SSH access link through restarts.
- Better from your phone: Tapping a notification opens the agent that sent it, agent chat tabs can start dictation, terminal copy commands reach the phone clipboard, and Android scrolling keeps the keyboard out of the way.
- Everyday polish, across languages: Better Korean input, Bengali and other Indic terminal rendering, more complete translations, Jira user pickers, and PR comment links that jump straight to the editor.
Phone updates: Updating Orca on the computer serving your phone updates the served interface. Native download, progress and navigation improvements require an updated native phone app.
Compatibility & upgrade notes
- Browser profiles: Choose Settings → Browser → Profile for new tabs. Shared remains the default; per-repo and per-workspace profiles apply to new tabs. Paired-server pages use the server’s own profiles.
- Native chat (experimental): Update paired and SSH hosts alongside Orca for the latest chat and launch fixes. Chat availability now checks the chat runtime separately from the terminal CLI, including supported Antigravity setups.
- SSH recovery: Recover server… is available for supported managed Linux SSH hosts reporting a stale-lock refusal. It checks the lock and asks you to confirm that no other machine sharing that home is running Orca before clearing it. Phones point you to desktop Settings.
- Experimental groundwork: Connector work remains behind the off-by-default
experimentalConnectorsflag. The layout-owner groundwork remains disabled. The empty-group launch actions and child-workspace status toggle were reverted before release.
Product experience
Agents, skills & setup
Get agent skills onto the machines where you work, with clearer launch choices and startup feedback.
- Update Orca's skills with Orca's own installer instead of npx skills by @Jinwoo-H in #31688
- Install and update Orca's skills on paired servers and SSH hosts by @Jinwoo-H in #31867
- Install Orca's skills with one click on every setup screen by @Jinwoo-H in #31918
- Chat agents are offered wherever their chat program runs, not only where their CLI is installed by @brennanb2025 in #28709
- Explain agent startup failures in plain words by @brennanb2025 in #31932
- Agents: store each agent's permission itself; terminals and new chats read it by @brennanb2025 in #31315
- Apply paired host preferences to launch menus by @nwparker in #31971
- fix(agents): + quick launch on a paired host uses the desktop's launch settings by @StrangerG in #32050
- Negotiate agent launches with paired runtimes by @nwparker in #32029
- Pair structured launches with the CLI runtime by @nwparker in #32061
- Keep agent environment values with spaces when the field loses focus by @AmoabaKelvin in #31772
- Retain managed WSL selection across distro casing by @nwparker in #31992
- Allow independent hidden account restarts to progress by @nwparker in #31994
- Start the default agent in the first folder added after skipping onboarding by @AmoabaKelvin in #32701
- Read Cursor Unified Ultra current-period quotas by @nwparker in #31978
- Show OpenCode provider quota failures as usage limits by @brennanb2025 in #31937
- Keep Claude weekly usage from jumping back to an idle session’s old value by @brennanb2025 in #32249
- Refine Agent Dashboard lifecycle handling by @AmethystLiang in #32172
- Respect completed setup when CLI registration is unavailable by @spf13 in #32085
Native chat (experimental)
Keep conversations moving, split off a fresh chat, and reach pane actions without leaving the conversation.
- Split into a fresh chat beside the current conversation by @brennanb2025 in #28950
- Add terminal-style pane header actions by @brennanb2025 in #28968
- Send pi and acp messages after a model-only change by @AmoabaKelvin in #32004
- A missing claude or codex cli no longer stalls the model picker on every open by @AmoabaKelvin in #32014
- Keep every image chip when several images are dropped at once by @AmoabaKelvin in #32022
- Show spelling suggestions when right-clicking chat inputs by @AmoabaKelvin in #32035
- Continue the chat when a background subagent wakes an idle parent by @AmoabaKelvin in #31778
- Retain unlisted reported Codex models by @nwparker in #32068
- Keep queued messages in the chat's own record, so a refused one can't be skipped by @brennanb2025 in #30418
- Allow inline visuals to declare open by @AmethystLiang in #32226
- Preserve accepted command outcomes across agent startup by @brennanb2025 in #31605
- A nested claude -p no longer takes over its parent pane's status by @AmoabaKelvin in #31780
- Keep a finished turn done when the agent reports an approval at idle by @AmoabaKelvin in #32015
- Show task names for Codex subagents by @nwparker in #32243
Browser
Separate project sessions, open links where you expect them, and get clearer page controls and recovery.
- Per-repo or per-workspace browser profile for new tabs by @AmoabaKelvin in #32039
- feat(browser): Chrome-style page context menu and DevTools window shortcuts by @AmoabaKelvin in #31821
- Say why a page failed to load and reload it when it can by @AmoabaKelvin in #31847
- Open links beside their pane, focus link tabs, honor window.close() by @AmoabaKelvin in #31844
- Markup controls sit below the page in a mobile viewport instead of covering it by @AmoabaKelvin in #32019
- Remove browser tab favicon drop shadows by @AmethystLiang in #32143
- Open local html file links in the browser link routing picks by @AmoabaKelvin in #32706
- Remote tunnel matches Chromium for IPv6 bypass rules and <-loopback> by @AmoabaKelvin in #32665
Phone
Reach the right agent, dictate from chat, and keep terminal gestures and clipboard actions predictable.
- Tapping a phone push opens the agent that sent it by @AmoabaKelvin in #31773
- Start dictation from agent chat tabs by @pelted in #32105
- Keep the android keyboard closed when you scroll or swipe the terminal by @AmoabaKelvin in #32038
- Send multi-line chat messages as one bracketed paste by @AmoabaKelvin in #31776
- Copy OSC 52 terminal writes, like Claude Code's /btw copy, to the phone clipboard by @AmoabaKelvin in #32042
- Decode page-bundle download windows natively by @Jinwoo-H in #31817
- Download only the page assets the cached generation lacks by @Jinwoo-H in #31769
- One download bar whose fill follows progress on the native driver by @Jinwoo-H in #31755
- The shell returns to a screen already on its stack by @Jinwoo-H in #32110
- Finish bundle downloads over slow links with smaller ranges by @nwparker in #32174
- Keep a terminal tab's chat identity while its handle is unchanged by @nwparker in #32251
- Add Copy path beside Copy in mobile Markdown footer by @AmethystLiang in #32748
- Improve contrast of mobile Markdown copy buttons by @AmethystLiang in #32844
- Keep mobile agent icons visible on retained routes by @zhangxaochen in #31948
Editor, files & performance
Keep every view of a file current and reduce unnecessary background work.
- Every view of a shared file stays current after undo or discard, and non-UTF-8 files ask before converting by @nwparker in #32413
- Saving a file, then closing that tab mid-save, no longer leaves its other tabs looking clean (STA-11786) by @nwparker in #32259
- File watching rides out a slow system instead of restarting, and turns itself back on after a cooldown by @nwparker in #32397
- Watch only the files Orca needs in its settings folder and .git, instead of the whole folders by @nwparker in #32410
- Open files dragged from the explorer in the target editor group by @brennanb2025 in #31961
- Keep paragraphs starting with "Dr.", "A." or "iv." out of ordered lists by @AmoabaKelvin in #32694
- Render authored Markdown breaks as rich-editor line breaks by @xianjianlf2 in #8995
- Let Cmd/Ctrl +/- zoom an open image by @bokeeeey in #32184
- Resume media previews from their last playback position by @yigitozen33 in #32480
- Retain explicitly opened directory symlinks during refresh by @nwparker in #32587
- Keep readable documents after traversal errors by @mfkp in #27774
- Preserve requested line across Preview teardown by @SamuelAdigos in #31676
- Collapse mirrored Markdown aliases with shared backing identity by @DaveDev42 in #31984
- Scope runtime connection and parking subscriptions by @nwparker in #32199
- Bound per-write chat selector work and guard ownership scans by @brennanb2025 in #32109
- Prepare separator variants once per query by @OrcaWin in #32252
- Decode image and encrypted reply bytes without character arrays by @OrcaWin in #32300
- Avoid redundant CRLF normalization when syncing Monaco by @OrcaWin in #32583
- Avoid full-recording copies when encoding dictation by @OrcaWin in #32432
- Accumulate MJPEG chunks instead of re-joining partial frames by @OrcaWin in #32967
Terminals, SSH & remote servers
Recover interrupted remote work and keep terminal output, file links and workspace lifecycle actions dependable.
- feat(ssh): Recover server for a managed host refused on a stale lock, and surface that refusal in seconds by @nwparker in #32951
- Add --reclaim-stale-lock for a lock no start can judge after a reboot on a shared home by @nwparker in #32915
- Allow SSH migration recovery without stopping preserved relay terminals by @nwparker in #32914
- Restored SSH terminals recover after password sign-in by @nwparker in #32275
- Keep a paired server's SSH access link across its restarts, and let it relink by @nwparker in #33001
- Preserve runtime recovery steps by @innocarpe in #24800
- Never block or over-read on an SSH identity file by @nwparker in #32274
- Never present a half-built synchronized-output frame on reveal or recovery by @nwparker in #32281
- A timed-out CLI split names its pending pane, and a retry can never re-run its command by @nwparker in #32278
- fix(terminal): Cmd/Ctrl+click opens the clicked path on a paired server when more paths follow by @nwparker in #32411
- A file link opens in the workspace it was clicked in by @nwparker in #32320
- Resolve Markdown file destinations before bare paths by @nwparker in #32056
- Verify an exact stop through an overlapping liveness inventory by @nwparker in #32948
- Scope daemon inventories for safe worktree teardown by @AmethystLiang in #32171
- Clear route proof during synthetic exits by @AmethystLiang in #32196
- Retire predecessor exit evidence on replacement by @nwparker in #32341
- Scope launch-session verdicts to managed environments by @nwparker in #32047
- The browser client advertises the desktop's chat capabilities, so its host opens chats by @nwparker in #32253
- Main runs workspace sleep; the window follows (P3b) by @Jinwoo-H in #31564
- Targeted resume of a recorded agent session, sharing an in-flight claim with pane resume by @Jinwoo-H in #31718
- End a resume claim when the hook store reports it, not at the next claim by @Jinwoo-H in #32120
- A slept server run opens its own tab from a paired desktop by @Jinwoo-H in #32132
- Add main-owned project move pause barrier by @nwparker in #32940
- Stop the terminal host scope from looping systemd with uresourced on Fedora by @Jinwoo-H in #32935
- Keep Linux controls readable when their positions stall by @brennanb2025 in #31982
- Keep Windows tree termination at normal scheduling priority by @nwparker in #32559
- Offload macOS deletion spawns and reduce branch cleanup by @nwparker in #32227
- Preserve binary output through termination barriers by @nwparker in #32633
- Shape Bengali and other Indic clusters in the WebGL renderer by @thabir303 in #32210
- Focus the neighboring pane when a split pane closes by @ibrahemid in #32238
Projects, source control & integrations
Jump from reviews to code, fill Jira user fields, and keep project actions tied to the right work.
- Open pr comment file:line locations in the editor by @AmoabaKelvin in #32031
- Pick Jira users for required Reporter and custom user fields by @brennanb2025 in #31972
- Import JiraUser from its real module in the issue user field by @brennanb2025 in #32964
- Find issues and #N in the new-workspace gitlab source by @AmoabaKelvin in #32005
- Fix GitHub PR auto-merge eligibility by @AmethystLiang in #32075
- Retain authentication guidance for push failures by @nwparker in #32078
- Reject cached same-branch PRs with foreign heads by @nwparker in #32060
- Preserve workspace PR history during automatic cleanup by @OrcaWin in #32263
- Unify single and multiple PR hover details by @nwparker in #32284
- Refresh automation run history before opening a run by @AmethystLiang in #32788
- Explain unsupported and unresolved worktree parents by @brennanb2025 in #32256
- Show activity status with worktree-style counts by @nwparker in #26443
- Retain the imported project group target by @just-zzp in #9551
- Show Remove Project label in PR panel for main worktree by @amondnet in #6605
- Label hosted reviews per provider in the space-manager panel by @xianjianlf2 in #7655
- Treat HTTP 404 as no-PR in the hosted-review branch lookup by @Donach in #10411
- Resume workspace cycling after closing the last tab by @jeongph in #10555
- List issue comments oldest first by @suatkocar in #25622
- Keep submitted comments cleared by @AN-SUNWOO in #29533
- Retain session row measurements while hidden by @wuuli in #30751
- Finish SSH-signed commits without hanging by @fancive in #30961
- Close the board when a right-sidebar tab is clicked by @alxojy in #30063
- Include undated Cursor sessions in time filters by @nwparker in #31991
Language, accessibility & interface polish
More natural text input, clearer translations, and controls that work better with touch and assistive tools.
- Send on the Enter that commits a Hangul composition (#30159) by @CHOI-JOO-YEON in #30192
- Submit on the Enter that commits Korean in every text field by @AmoabaKelvin in #32756
- Complete six locale catalogs and include community Portuguese translations by @AmethystLiang in #32782
- Translate recent UI copy by @AmethystLiang in #32125
- Describe Korean descendant sleep as closing panels by @leo-yt-upstage in #31503
- Correct Chinese technical mistranslations by @Acture in #24174
- End autolinked urls at CJK punctuation in chat, terminal and mobile by @AmoabaKelvin in #32013
- Render CJK bold that ends in punctuation in desktop and phone chats by @AmoabaKelvin in #32020
- Switch workspaces when accessibility tools press a sidebar row by @AmoabaKelvin in #32007
- Use focusable tooltip menu triggers by @Zuz666 in #9595
- Reveal project header actions on touch devices by @buf0-bot[bot] in #5760
- Align multiline filter toggle row text and icons to top-left by @hwantage in #16054
- Shimmer stale reference metadata without layout shifts by @OrcaWin in #32949
Tests, builds & maintenance
Dependency security fixes, broader regression coverage, release-build improvements and continued cleanup.
All maintenance changes
Experimental groundwork (disabled by default)
New Contributors
- @CHOI-JOO-YEON made their first contribution in #30192
- @StrangerG made their first contribution in #32050
- @just-zzp made their first contribution in #9551
- @Donach made their first contribution in #10411
- @Acture made their first contribution in #24174
- @suatkocar made their first contribution in #25622
- @petersindex made their first contribution in #26500
- @mfkp made their first contribution in #27774
- @AN-SUNWOO made their first contribution in #29533
- @wuuli made their first contribution in #30751
- @fancive made their first contribution in #30961
- @SamuelAdigos made their first contribution in #31676
- @DaveDev42 made their first contribution in #31984
- @spf13 made their first contribution in #32085
- @pelted made their first contribution in #32105
- @bokeeeey made their first contribution in #32184
- @thabir303 made their first contribution in #32210
- @ibrahemid made their first contribution in #32238
- @yigitozen33 made their first contribution in #32480
- @alxojy made their first contribution in #30063
Full Changelog: v1.4.238...v1.4.239