firstmate-orca

Use this as the operator checklist for Firstmate's experimental Orca runtime backend. It does not replace AGENTS.md, docs/orca-backend.md, or harness-adapters.

Orca is a runtime backend, not an agent harness. The runtime backend owns the task endpoint and, for Orca, the task worktree. The harness is the agent process launched inside that endpoint, such as claude, codex, opencode, pi, pi-signed, grok, or kimi. Load harness-adapters for harness-specific launch, interrupt, resume, trust-dialog, and skill-invocation facts.

Implementation details, metadata fields, teardown guarantees, and limitations live in docs/orca-backend.md. docs/verification/runtime-backends.md "Orca" owns active smoke evidence. Prefer the bin/fm-* helpers over raw orca commands. Use raw orca only when the helper surface cannot answer the inspection question, and keep the recorded firstmate metadata as the task identity.

Preflight

Work from the current firstmate home or repo root. If FM_HOME is set, remember that operational state lives under $FM_HOME while the helper scripts still run from this repo's bin/.

Before switching or spawning against Orca:

• Confirm Orca is intentionally selected through --backend orca, FM_BACKEND=orca, or local config/backend.
• Confirm the Orca app is running and the backend readiness checks pass before expecting spawn to work.
• Inspect active state/*.meta records before changing backend selection.
• Treat a backend switch as affecting future spawns only; existing tasks keep their recorded backend.
• Reconcile watcher wakes before unrelated work, especially if Orca tasks are already in flight.

Spawn

Use bin/fm-spawn.sh so firstmate creates the brief, worktree, terminal, metadata, status file, and watcher surface together. Pass --backend orca for a one-off Orca task, or rely on the already-selected Orca backend when that selection is intentional.

After spawn, check the task with firstmate helpers:

• bin/fm-peek.sh fm-<id> for launch failures, trust dialogs, or first output.
• state/<id>.meta for backend=orca, terminal=, orca_worktree_id=, and worktree=.
• bin/fm-crew-state.sh <id> when the current run state matters.
• bin/fm-watch.sh whenever there are tasks in flight and this session owns supervision.

Do not manually create the Orca worktree or terminal for a normal firstmate task. Do not manually patch metadata to make an externally-created Orca terminal look like a firstmate task.

Supervision

Use bin/fm-peek.sh, bin/fm-send.sh, bin/fm-crew-state.sh, and bin/fm-teardown.sh for routine operation. For steer messages, use bin/fm-send.sh <id> '...'; the stable fm-<id> alias also works, and ordinary local text steers may contain newlines because they ride the durable inbox. Keep initial scope in the task brief; a temporary file remains useful when the instruction includes supporting material the worker should inspect separately.

When supervising, treat state/<id>.meta as the routing record and Orca's own ids as backend implementation details. The stable firstmate alias is fm-<id>. The recorded terminal= and orca_worktree_id= fields are what backend helpers use under the hood.

If an ordinary steer fails to enqueue, or a typed-plane fm-send fails to submit, do not immediately repeat the instruction. Read the reported failure and peek first, then decide whether the record exists or the target is busy, waiting on a prompt, stuck behind a popup, or genuinely wedged. For harness-specific interrupts or exits, load harness-adapters.

Recovery

For a messy Orca-backed task:

1. Read state/<id>.meta and the relevant status tail first.
2. Confirm the task is actually Orca-backed before using Orca-specific assumptions.
3. Use the recorded terminal=, orca_worktree_id=, and worktree= as the task identity.
4. Prefer firstmate helpers for peek, send, state, and teardown.
5. Avoid raw deletion of Orca worktrees or manual branch cleanup.
6. Stop and inspect if the recorded worktree path, Orca worktree id, or project checkout no longer matches expectations.

Teardown remains governed by the normal firstmate landing rules. Scout work can be torn down after the report exists and the captain-hold-lifecycle completion gate passes. Ship work can be torn down only after the work is landed by its project mode.

Smoke Test

Keep Orca smoke tests focused on lifecycle plumbing:

1. Select Orca intentionally for a disposable task or scout.
2. Spawn through bin/fm-spawn.sh.
3. Confirm metadata records the Orca backend, terminal, Orca worktree id, and isolated worktree path.
4. Verify bin/fm-peek.sh, a short bin/fm-send.sh steer, watcher wake behavior, and bin/fm-crew-state.sh.
5. Tear down through bin/fm-teardown.sh after the task is safely disposable or landed.
6. Restore the previous backend selection if Orca was selected only for the smoke test.

Do not mix a backend smoke test with unrelated feature work.