Official docs · checked 2026-09-23

Orca installed but no orca command: first check it went in as orca-ide

Orca, install side only: on Linux the command is orca-ide, not orca; Homebrew needs the command with the tap; the CLI says command not found; SSH connects but starts no remote terminal; phone pairing fails. The official docs have one sentence each on these (checked 2026-09-23).

Updated 2026-09-23

#orca-ide command name#brew with the tap#AppImage / deb / rpm#SSH and phone pairing

Four Things to Know First

orca-ide

Command and Package Names

Officially, Linux installs it as orca-ide, without shadowing the GNOME screen reader; .deb/.rpm share that name and reason. Run which orca-ide before assuming a failed install.

With the tap

The Full brew Command

The cask for this app is stablyai/orca/orca; the bare orca one has been disabled since 2026-09-01, reason fails_gatekeeper_check.

~/.local/bin

Where the CLI registers

The official fix for command not found is to register the CLI under Settings → General → Orca CLI; on macOS it installs a shim into ~/.local/bin, then check that it is on PATH.

Same app

Package format ≠ version

AppImage/.deb/.rpm install the same app; officially, what differs is how updates reach you — do not guess feature differences from the package format.

To be clear: same app, command name not always orca

The official install page gives this its own subsection, headed “The CLI command is orca-ide”, whose body reads “On Linux the Orca CLI installs as orca-ide, not orca”, and the reason is quoted too: “GNOME Orca — the screen reader that ships by default on Ubuntu and other GNOME desktops — already owns /usr/bin/orca, and Orca will not shadow it”. The same section adds one line: “The .deb and .rpm packages are named orca-ide for the same reason”. So on Linux “I installed it and orca does nothing” is mostly not a failed install — that path was never Orca's in the first place.

Counted that same day

The GitHub Releases latest page fetched 2026-09-23 returns v1.4.207, published 2026-09-22T09:44:40Z, with assets covering orca-macos-x64.dmg, orca-windows-setup.exe and orca-linux.AppImage; the license reads MIT from the repository's own LICENSE file (the API's license field agrees). Counters that move by the minute, like stars and forks, are kept out of this page's body — that belongs in the comparison table on the P4 page, where every number carries its own fetch day. On phones, iOS goes through the App Store (the app's internal name in that listing is orca-ide); for Android the official channel is app-release.apk on the releases page plus a short install guide.

Timeline

2026-09-01

2026-09-01: in Homebrew's public metadata this is the disable_date of the orca cask, and its disable_reason is fails_gatekeeper_check. This page was checked on 2026-09-23, and that cask is still disabled: true, deprecated: false. So it was not "replaced by Orca" — Homebrew disabled it.

2026-09-22

2026-09-22: the six official docs pages this page uses (install, troubleshooting, ssh, mobile, android-apk, headless Linux server) and the README were fetched verbatim and archived; every English quote here can be found word for word in that archive set.

2026-09-23

2026-09-23: this page's four-language text is final, matched to official wording. CLI names, package names, cask status shift by version, so each section notes its check date; later edits re-take by date, no quiet swap.

Fix it yourself vs. docs

Verbatim in the docs

Checked 2026-09-23; six statements match official pages word for word: 1) On Linux the Orca CLI installs as orca-ide, not orca; 2) GNOME Orca — the screen reader that ships by default on Ubuntu and other GNOME desktops — already owns /usr/bin/orca, and Orca will not shadow it; 3) brew install --cask stablyai/orca/orca and brew upgrade --cask orca; 4) Each published release ships three Linux packages — an AppImage, a .deb, and an .rpm ... They contain the same app; 5) the fix for command not found is Register the CLI under Settings → General → Orca CLI, and on macOS the shim lands in ~/.local/bin; 6) the phone pairing offer: A pairing offer is a capability containing a device credential and E2EE material.

⚠️ Three wrong guesses

One: "typing orca gives nothing, so it is not installed". On Linux it was never called orca; the official page says outright it will not shadow the GNOME screen reader, so check orca-ide and PATH first. Two: "orca was pulled from brew, so Homebrew cannot install Orca". The disabled one is the same-named cask with no tap (fails_gatekeeper_check); the tapped stablyai/orca/orca is this route, official install page's first line. Three: "SSH connects, so it works". The official troubleshooting page splits files and terminals into two things, listing SSH works for files but not “Download Folder” alone — a whole folder needs recursive SFTP, and on the system's own sftp channel only half may work.

Wrong install vs missing

Check these two first

First, the name: does which orca-ide return anything, and is ~/.local/bin on your PATH. Second, the channel: on macOS, did you use the tapped cask or that .dmg on GitHub — both are stable, but only the former follows brew upgrade. Get these two right and most "command not found" reports vanish on their own.

Three further checks

First, signing and approval: the official macOS section says Signed and notarized and adds that first launch may still ask you to confirm — normal for Electron apps. Second, the remote machine: if SSH connects but no terminal starts, the docs have you check the remote has Node and network access for the first-time relay install; on Linux also make, g++/clang++, python3, then reconnect once. Third, minimal images: headless page says A minimal server or container image ships none of the Electron libraries — missing shared libraries, not Orca itself.

Choosing an install route

macOS: the official line is the one with the tap, brew install --cask stablyai/orca/orca, and upgrades are brew upgrade --cask orca; the docs say this cask tracks the stable channel, so RC builds mean GitHub Releases or the in-app “Check for Updates”. The bare orca cask name is held by another artifact: Homebrew public metadata fetched 2026-09-23 reads disabled: true, disable_date 2026-09-01, disable_reason fails_gatekeeper_check (not delisted, and deprecated is still false). Linux: officially every release ships three packages, AppImage, .deb and .rpm, in both x64 and arm64, and “They contain the same app. What differs is how updates reach you”, so the only thing you pick on is “how updates get to you”. The Arch line is yay -S stably-orca-bin (or stably-orca-git, built from source). Headless servers have their own official page: install Xvfb first, plus the shared libraries Electron links against; the docs warn that “A minimal server or container image ships none of the Electron libraries”.

Where QCode fits in

No link on the install side: Orca ships no model and holds no credentials, and after install model access still comes from the launched agent CLI's own config. What links is where that key points: on your own endpoint you change that CLI's base_url and key. This page only gets Orca itself up first, the remote terminal open, the phone paired. Endpoint writing is in this site's custom-endpoint guide; not repeated here.

FAQ

Typed orca on Linux — no response. Install failed?

Usually not. The official install page has its own section, The CLI command is orca-ide: on Linux the Orca CLI installs as orca-ide, since GNOME's bundled desktop already owns /usr/bin/orca and Orca will not shadow it; .deb and .rpm names, same reason. So run which orca-ide first, then check if ~/.local/bin is on PATH — clear those two before talking about reinstalling.

Why does brew install --cask orca report that this cask is disabled?

Because the orca cask without a tap is not this project's release channel. Homebrew's public metadata on 2026-09-23 shows disabled: true, disable_date 2026-09-01 and disable_reason fails_gatekeeper_check, while deprecated is still false. What the official install page gives is the tapped brew install --cask stablyai/orca/orca, upgraded with brew upgrade --cask orca, and it says that cask tracks the stable channel.

AppImage, deb or rpm — which to pick?

The official wording is that every release ships these three package formats (both x64 and arm64 are there): They contain the same app. What differs is how updates reach you, so pick on that — that is, the basis for the choice is how updates reach you, not feature differences. For the Arch route take stably-orca-bin, or stably-orca-git, which builds from source.

Terminal says Orca CLI command not found — where do I fix it?

The official troubleshooting page gives the registration step: Register the CLI under Settings → General → Orca CLI. On macOS it drops a shim into ~/.local/bin, then confirm that directory is on your shell's PATH. In other words reinstalling is not the fix — what is missing is that one entry in PATH.

SSH connects but the remote terminal will not start — what to check first?

The official troubleshooting page lists three: confirm the remote has Node and reaches the network during the first relay install; on a Linux remote add this C/C++ toolchain — make, g++/clang++, python3; then reconnect once after installing so Orca reinstalls its native modules. Another page (headless Linux server) adds the server-side prerequisite: A minimal server or container image ships none of the Electron libraries, so Xvfb and the Electron shared libraries go in together.

The phone-pairing offer looks fine — so why will it not connect?

The official headless page splits the cause into two layers. The offer itself: "A pairing offer is a capability containing a device credential and E2EE material", so it should go only to the intended client, not into proxy access logs. A failed connection is usually on the network side: boundEndpoint is the address the process listens on, advertisedEndpoint the one the client dials, as the docs spell out — if DNS, the firewall, Docker port publishing, Tailscale policy or a reverse proxy does not route advertised to bound, a valid-looking offer still cannot connect.

Sources

Official documentation (archived locally verbatim on 2026-09-22): the five pages install, troubleshooting, ssh, mobile and android-apk live at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stablyai/orca/HEAD/docs/site/content/docs/<page-name>.mdx; the two pages headless Linux server and linux glibc compatibility live under docs/reference/; README sits at the repository root. The Homebrew side uses the public metadata at https://formulae.brew.sh/api/cask/orca.json; the release and asset names come from https://api.github.com/repos/stablyai/orca/releases/latest. Everything was fetched over the public internet, with no logged-in state.

Make the CLI show up first

Suggested debug order: is orca-ide on PATH → CLI registration (Settings → General → Orca CLI) → remote Node and toolchain → then the model endpoint. Official wording checked 2026-09-23.

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