Agent Orchestrator (AO)vsOrca
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Agent Orchestrator (AO)
Untrivial AI · Agent harness
OSS
Panel
6.00 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.7
- Usefulness
- 5.8
- Cost
- 6.8
- Longevity
- 5.7
“Has a column called Needs You, which is the first honest name for a notification since the pager.”
Orca
Stably AI · Agent harness
OSS
Panel
6.31 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.8
- Usefulness
- 6.5
- Cost
- 6.7
- Longevity
- 6.0
“The Android app is at version 0.0.47, so it has shipped forty-seven times without anyone committing to version one.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Agent Orchestrator (AO) | Orca |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, windows, linux | macos, windows, linux |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | No | No |
| Git operations | Yes | Yes |
| Browser control | Yes | Yes |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | via managed agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Aider, GitHub Copilot, Droid, Kimi Code, Pi, Devin and others) | via managed agents (Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Gemini, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode, Amp, Pi, Hermes Agent, Goose and others) |
| Bring your own model | No | No |
| Local models | No | No |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | free | free |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | No | No |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 12,600 | 83,326 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Agent Orchestrator (AO) | Orca | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.8 | 7.0 | Orca — Pick Orca if you run Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Gemini, Goose or Hermes and want to watch them from your phone; pick Agent Orchestrator if you want a planner over the board. |
| El Crítico | 6.0 | 5.3 | Agent Orchestrator (AO) — The orchestrator is described as autonomously handling CI fixes and merge conflicts, which is the one job a careful engineer does not delegate; the app runs agents on the host. |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 6.0 | Agent Orchestrator (AO) — A Go daemon watches agents and source control while an Electron app renders the board; CI results are routed back to the task owner; no benchmark is published. |
| La Inversora | 4.8 | 5.5 | Orca — Stably AI, YC-backed, gives away an MIT app with 61,000 stars and no price; the revenue is elsewhere in Stably's business, and this is the funnel. |
| La Jefa | 5.5 | 6.0 | Orca — Anonymous usage data is collected with an opt-out, there is no SSO, no plan and no vendor contact beyond a GitHub repo; approved with conditions as a personal tool. |
| El Hacker | 6.5 | 7.8 | Orca — MIT, brew cask and an AUR package, and a CLI with orca worktree create, snapshot, click and fill so I can script the window; no MCP, no model settings. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.