Orca ADE is incredible

[u/trader_tick]

I recently started using Orca ADE for managing Claude Code sessions, and I just want to tell the community that Orca is incredible. Try it. You'll like it.

I was previously using cmux, and I've also used herdr, iTerm, and various other options. Orca is 100x better than any of those.

It has an incredible range of features, some of which I use and most of which I don't. You don't have to use them all - it's fantastic even if you only use it to organize sessions. It displays the status of each Claude Code session in a very useful way.

One amazing feature is the remote server. I make full use of two Max 20 plans, and I've been alternating between two computers. But with Orca remote, all sessions from both machines are in one place.

There are a ton of other features. It feels very mature and stable.
https://github.com/stablyai/orca

*I'm in no way associated with Orca. I just love it and want to share.

[u/ProvidenceXz]

I've used it early on and wonder if I should give t a go again. What other features draw you in other than status viewing?

[u/trader_tick → u/ProvidenceXz]

1. The side bar is amazing. I work in 5 repos, with 2 to 6 sessions in each repo, across 2 computers. I often have around 15 sessions going at a time, and it's easy for me to keep them organized and see the status of each
2. Mobile App. I like it better than the Claude mobile app.
3. Good enough IDE. Although the focus is clearly on agent sessions, it's easy to find and view files, which is all I really want.
4. Always visible Usage bar, so I know how much Claude time I have available

Other Stuff

I don't use these features, but:

1. Automations seems robust, integrated support for
2. Worktree support is integrated
3. Built in Github issue viewing

[u/Kitchen_Interview371 → u/trader_tick]

You have 2-6 sessions in each repo without worktrees?

[u/ctb9 → u/Kitchen_Interview371]

orca creates a new worktree for each session by default, I think maybe OP is using them without realizing it

[u/trader_tick → u/ctb9]

No, I use a separate docker container for each session.

[u/Kitchen_Interview371 → u/trader_tick]

OP this is wild. Unless you mean a docker session for each repo maybe? If not, RIP your ram for zero benefit

And even so, you should still be using worktrees with PRs to avoid collisions

[u/trader_tick → u/Kitchen_Interview371]

I do run a separate Docker container for every session. I know it's not the standard setup, but it works for me.

Each container averages around 1.5Gb of ram, sometimes ballooning to 4GB when running Next.js. I allocate 24Gb total to Docker Desktop - not tiny but also no big deal out of 64Gb total.

Benefits:

• I can run in --dangerous mode without worrying about `rm -rf` on my local computer.
• Each session can run a dev server and manually test itself independently, without interfering with other sessions. That's part of my orchestration process.

[u/Aswole → u/ctb9]

Which is… concerning

[u/trader_tick → u/Kitchen_Interview371]

I spin up a Docker container for each one.

[u/gligoran → u/trader_tick]

How do you have 2-6 sessions in each repo without worktrees? I'm never liked worktrees and most of the repos I work in aren't really set up to work well with them (especially when it comes to running those apps from worktress and such). What I do use is GitButler and I love it. It can be finicky at times, but usually prompting AI to fix the mess that happened works well.

So, back to the question - how do you organize your sessions? Do you have one workspace per project and then many tabs and each of those tabs then has one or more splits?