Orcyx and Orca (onorca.dev) are both agent development environments — desktop apps built for running AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini in parallel. Orca is a free, MIT-licensed, worktree-first agent IDE by Stably, Inc. Orcyx is a commercial, local-first environment that adds review-gated swarm orchestration, a safety sandbox with auditing, a markdown knowledge graph with its own MCP server, trigger-based automation, and a live Unity/Unreal engine bridge.
LAST UPDATED 2026-08-29 · ORCA FACTS VERIFIED FROM ONORCA.DEV ON THIS DATE
| CAPABILITY | ORCYX | ORCA (ONORCA.DEV) |
|---|---|---|
| License & price | Commercial — plans on the pricing page | Free, open source (MIT) |
| Platforms | Windows & macOS installers; Linux on the roadmap (pre-1.0) | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Parallel CLI agents | ✓ — one PTY per pane in a recursive split grid | ✓ — agents in parallel across isolated git worktrees |
| Orchestration model | Coordinator–router–builder swarm: a director splits missions into cards and dispatches coder, researcher, and auditor seats | Developer-directed: you launch and steer each agent |
| Merge governance | Auditor review gate — no implementation card merges until scope, safety, and tests pass | In-app diff review (manual) |
| Safety sandbox & audit | ✓ — file-system sandbox, prompt-injection screening, env allowlist, per-seat limits, redacted audit log | Not advertised as of 2026-08-29 |
| Knowledge graph + MCP | ✓ — markdown Vault with an in-process MCP server (12 tools, per-tool ACL) | Not advertised as of 2026-08-29 |
| Automation triggers | ✓ — cron scheduler, file-system watchers, lifecycle hooks, record-and-replay macros | Not advertised as of 2026-08-29 |
| Game-engine bridge | ✓ — agents drive live Unity & Unreal editors with staged apply/rollback | — |
| Embedded browser | ✓ — with an inspect-chat dock agents can script | ✓ |
| Voice | ✓ — Whisper dictation into any pane, PII-redacted before send | Not advertised as of 2026-08-29 |
| Provider keys | Bring your own — no Orcyx markup on your keys (bundled OrcyxCredits do carry one) | Bring your own |
SOURCE: ONORCA.DEV, READ 2026-08-29. "NOT ADVERTISED" MEANS THE CAPABILITY DOES NOT APPEAR ON ORCA'S PUBLIC SITE ON THAT DATE — IT MAY EXIST UNANNOUNCED. CORRECTIONS: [email protected].
Orca (onorca.dev) is a free, open-source Agent Development Environment by Stably, Inc., licensed under MIT. Orca runs Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Cursor CLI, and other CLI coding agents in parallel, giving each agent its own isolated git worktree so parallel work never conflicts. It ships a Ghostty-inspired terminal with infinite splits, in-app diff review, an embedded browser, and remote SSH development, and it is cross-platform on macOS, Windows, and Linux. If a free worktree manager for parallel CLI agents is the whole job, Orca does it well.
Orcyx is a local-first agentic development environment for senior engineers, shipped as one Tauri 2 desktop binary. Orcyx combines multi-pane terminals, a terminal-linked Monaco IDE, an embedded browser, and a markdown knowledge graph with its own MCP server — then layers systems on top: Swarm (coordinator–router–builder agent teams with an auditor review gate and per-pane cost tracking), Automation (cron, file-watch triggers, lifecycle hooks, macros), the Engine Bridge (agents driving live Unity and Unreal editors), and a Platform layer with a safety sandbox, redacted audit logging, DB browser, SSH sessions, and dev containers.
Orca is the better fit when you want a free, open-source tool, when you need a native Linux build today, or when your workflow is exactly "several CLI agents, each in its own worktree, reviewed by hand." There is no license to buy and the MIT source is on GitHub — that simplicity is a genuine strength, and we'd rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Orcyx is the better fit when agents need governance, not just isolation. An Orcyx swarm dispatches work to agent seats and holds every implementation card at an auditor review gate — scope respected, no destructive paths, tests green — before anything merges. Every agent runs inside a safety sandbox with prompt-injection screening and a redacted audit trail. Agent context persists in a local markdown knowledge graph any MCP client can read. And if you build games, Orcyx agents operate live Unity and Unreal editors with staged apply and rollback — a capability Orca does not offer.
Yes. Orcyx is a direct Orca alternative in the agent-development-environment category: both run CLI coding agents in parallel on your desktop. Orcyx differs by adding review-gated swarm orchestration, a safety sandbox with audit logging, a local knowledge graph with an MCP server, trigger-based automation, and a Unity/Unreal engine bridge.
Governance. Orca isolates parallel agents in git worktrees and leaves review to you; Orcyx routes agent work through a coordinator–router–builder topology where an auditor seat gates every merge, and runs each agent inside a sandbox with a redacted audit trail.
Orca is free and open source under the MIT license. Orcyx is a commercial product — current plans are on the Orcyx pricing page — and your own provider keys carry no Orcyx markup.
Yes. Both Orcyx and Orca run Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and other CLI agents with your own provider keys. Orcyx additionally lets one swarm mix providers per seat — Anthropic on the auditor, OpenAI on a coder — with per-pane cost counters.
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