Agent skill · software engineering · stablyai
orca-per-workspace-env
Set up, review, debug, or validate Orca per-workspace environment recipes — on-demand, disposable runtimes (cloud sandboxes, VMs, or local) created fresh for each workspace. Covers first-time setup (provider prerequisites, the reusable base snapshot, the coding-agent auth snapshot, credentials, and state), not just the per-workspace lifecycle scripts. Use to stand up per-workspace environments, fix an `environmentRecipes` entry in `orca.yaml`, scaffold provider lifecycle scripts, or resolve an `orca vm recipe doctor` failure.
Why this skill is useful
Adds specific commands and workflows for setting up and debugging Orca per-workspace environments that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires orca installed locally. About 3k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 39,092 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Per-Workspace Environments This file is a discovery stub, not the usage guide. The full, version-matched per-workspace environment reference is served by the orca binary itself — kept out of this file on purpose so it can never drift from the binary that will actually run your commands. Engage Orca whenever you set up, review, debug, or validate a per-workspace environment recipe — the on-demand, disposable runtimes (cloud sandboxes, VMs, or local) created fresh for each workspace. This covers first-time setup (provider prerequisites, the reusable base snapshot, the coding-agent auth snapshot, credentials, and state), not just the per-workspace lifecycle scripts. Use it to stand up per-workspace environments, fix an environmentRecipes entry in orca.yaml, scaffold provider lifecycle scripts, or resolve an orca vm recipe doctor failure. Orca is a thin wrapper: you guide, detect, and scaffold; you never own the user's cloud account, billing, images, or credentials, and never spend money without an explicit user OK. Resolve the CLI for this session Choose the executable once and reuse it for every later command: If the ORCACLICOMMAND environment variable is set, use its value. Orca exports this for managed WSL sessions. Otherwise, in a dev checkout whose session exposes ORCADEVREPOROOT, use orca-dev. Otherwise, on Linux outside an Orca-managed terminal, use orca-ide. Never run bare orca there — outside Orca's terminals it normally resolves to the GNOME Orca screen reader (/usr/bin/orca) and starts speech on the user's machine. Otherwise, use orca. Below, ORCA is a placeholder for the executable you resolved. Substitute it before running anything; do not create a shell variable or run ORCA literally. This works the same way in POSIX shells, PowerShell, and cmd.exe. If the selected executable cannot run, report its exact error and stop. Do not fall through to another executable, which could silently target a different Orca build. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills stablyai/orca-per-workspace-env