Here’s the honest rundown. Orca ADE — an agentic development environment — is the new way to code with AI: a free, open-source app where parallel agents work across split terminals, with live previews, design annotation, a mobile companion and scheduled automations.
It works with any coding agent, and it’s genuinely the most complete ADE I’ve used. Here’s the full tour.
Last updated: July 2026.
Key takeaways
- Orca ADE = a free, open-source agentic development environment: parallel agents, split terminals, previews.
- Works with any coding agent — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Antigravity, Kimi, Hermes, open code.
- Orchestration skill lets agents hand off context and coordinate through Orca.
- Run projects locally or on a remote VPS, and control it all from your phone via QR pairing.
- Learn agentic coding workflows in the AI Profit Boardroom.
What Is an ADE (Agentic Development Environment)?
An IDE is built for a human writing code. An ADE is built for a human directing agents that write code — which changes everything about the interface: multiple terminals running different agents in parallel, live previews of what they build, visual annotation instead of typed feedback, and dashboards showing which agent needs you.
Orca is exactly that: a simple, free, open-source desktop app (with a mobile companion) that turns agent-driven development into something you can actually oversee.
The Core Features
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Parallel work trees | Multiple agents on the same or different projects at once |
| Terminal splits | Right-click → split right/down; Hermes + Claude Code side by side |
| Design mode | Grab elements, draw on screenshots, annotate feedback to the agent |
| Live preview | Open your build’s localhost in a browser tab inside Orca |
| Mobile companion | QR-pair your phone and drive the terminals remotely |
| Agent dashboard | See who’s working and who needs approval — no idle agents |
| Automations | Schedule agents on recurring tasks (with templates) |
| Fork sessions | Right-click → fork an agent session into a new branch of work |
Any Agent, Any Model — Including Free
Orca doesn’t lock you to one agent. Enable and switch between Claude Code, agent teams, Codex, Gemini, Antigravity, Kimi, Hermes and open code — pick a default, disable the rest, and split terminals to run several at once. And you can keep it free: Hermes costs nothing and pairs with a free API like Ling 3.0 Flash, so a subtask can go to a free agent while your main agent works.
Turn on the orchestration skill in settings and agents hand off context and coordinate work through Orca itself — plus there’s a computer-use skill and voice dictation if you want them.
Design Mode: Feedback Without the Back-and-Forth
This is the feature non-coders will love. Open your build in the preview tab, grab any page element and send it to the agent (“make that more interesting”), or annotate the page directly — describe the change, mark it as a question or a command, queue several notes, then send them all to Claude or a whole agent team in one go.
In my test the refreshed page came back with the new logo and a noticeably better design. You can even import your browser data and use the preview tab like Chrome.
Remote, Mobile and Scheduled
Projects can run locally or on a remote Orca server (a VPS), you can load GitHub projects and drag files straight in, and the mobile companion pairs by QR code — honestly a better remote-coding experience than Claude Code’s remote feature in my testing. The automation section schedules any agent (Hermes included) on recurring tasks with ready-made templates, manageable from your phone.
And because you can juggle multiple projects — an app, a website, a game — you’re never sat waiting for one agent to finish. That’s the real productivity unlock.
Orca ADE vs the Alternatives
Why not just use Hermes desktop? Because that’s a single-agent app — Orca is a genuine multi-agent orchestration platform. For the deeper dives, see my Orca AI coding guide (the coding workflow) and Orca AI agent guide (the agent-fleet angle) — this page is the ADE picture that ties it together.
Get the Full Workflow
The agentic coding workflows I run through Orca — agents, free models, skills and automations — are all taught inside the AI Profit Boardroom.
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FAQ
What is Orca ADE?
A free, open-source agentic development environment — an app built for directing AI coding agents: parallel terminals, live previews, design annotation, a mobile companion and scheduled automations.
How is an ADE different from an IDE?
An IDE is for humans writing code; an ADE is for humans directing agents that write code — so it’s built around parallelism, previews, visual feedback and agent dashboards.
What agents does Orca support?
Any coding agent — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Antigravity, Kimi, Hermes and open code — switchable and runnable in parallel, including free stacks like Hermes + Ling 3.0 Flash.
Can I use Orca from my phone?
Yes — pair via QR code and control your local terminals remotely. It’s better than Claude Code’s remote feature in my testing.
Can Orca run agents on a schedule?
Yes — the automation section schedules any agent on recurring tasks, with templates, manageable from your phone.
The Bottom Line
Free, open source, multi-agent — Orca ADE is the new development environment. The workflows are in the AI Profit Boardroom.