Orca Agentvspi
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Orca Agent
echoVic · Terminal agent
#98OSSMCP
Panel
6.82 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.7
- Usefulness
- 6.7
- Cost
- 7.7
- Longevity
- 6.0
“A coding agent written in Rust and installed from npm, which is either pragmatism or a quiet cry for help.”
pi
Earendil Inc. · Terminal agent
#9OSS
Panel
6.83 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.5
- Usefulness
- 6.5
- Cost
- 7.3
- Longevity
- 7.0
“A coding agent that ships themes, which is the first time anyone has cared what the terminal looks like while a file gets deleted.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Orca Agent | pi |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | NoSessions run under a restricted per-folder sandbox, using Windows AppContainer isolation on Windows, rather than a container. | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | No |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes`orca exec` runs headlessly with resumable sessions and an optional verifier command. | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | DeepSeek | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, llama.cpp |
| Bring your own model | No | Yes |
| Local models | No | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 509 | 111,339 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Orca Agent | pi | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.0 | 7.5 | pi — Pick pi if you want a terminal agent small enough to read in an afternoon and extend in TypeScript; pick OpenCode if your workflow already depends on MCP servers. |
| El Crítico | 6.8 | 6.8 | no preference |
| El Profesor | 7.5 | 7.3 | Orca Agent — Subagent identity is runtime-owned rather than model-supplied: synchronous, asynchronous and workflow children all receive continuation ids from the runtime. |
| La Inversora | 6.3 | 5.5 | Orca Agent — Built native to one provider whose key the documented setup takes, so both the cost story and the availability story are somebody else's decisions. |
| La Jefa | 6.3 | 5.5 | Orca Agent — orca exec runs in a pipeline with resumable and forkable sessions, which is the difference between a demo and a step I can put in front of a merge. |
| El Hacker | 6.8 | 8.5 | pi — MIT TypeScript, extensions that add tools, commands and UI, /llama for llama.cpp on my box, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in the environment, and packages to share it all. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.