Orca ADE Tutorial: The 5-Minute Free Quick Start

Here is the shortest orca ade tutorial I can write: download the app, open a project, split the terminal, and you have several AI agents building at once for free.

That is genuinely the whole thing.

Orca is a free, open-source agentic development environment, so the tool itself never costs you anything.

This post is the five-minute quick start followed by every question I get asked about it.

If you want to skim, the quick start below is all you need.

The 5-Minute Quick Start

Here is the whole setup in one block, in order.

Download the app from the Orca GitHub repo. It is free and open source, so there is no signup or trial.
Open a project. Browse to an existing folder, clone from a GitHub URL, or create a brand-new project from scratch.
Open an agent in the terminal. Pick Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, Kimi, OpenClaw or Antigravity and start it inside the project.
Split the terminal. Right-click and choose split terminal right or split terminal down. Repeat until you have four agents on the same project.
Open a live preview. Ask your agent for a localhost URL, click the plus sign, choose new browser tab, and paste it in.

That is the core loop, and everything else in Orca is an upgrade on top of it.

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What Orca Is In One Paragraph

Orca is an agentic development environment rather than a code editor with a chatbot in the sidebar.

You are looking at terminals, a live preview and an automation panel.

It feels like a control room where the AI agents do the typing and you do the directing.

The thing that makes it different is parallelism, because most coding tools give you one assistant in one window and Orca lets you run several agents on the same project simultaneously.

Then you preview and correct their work visually rather than in prose.

The Two Free Routes, Explained Quickly

Orca being free is only useful if the agents inside it are too, so here are both routes.

Route 1: Use subscriptions you already have

Already paying for Codex, Claude Code or OpenClaw? Connect them and your bill does not move.

Orca itself is free and open source, so nothing here adds cost.

Route 2: Free agent plus free API

No subscriptions? Run a free agent with a free API.

I used Hermes with a free API — Ling flash — and it genuinely cost nothing.

People always push back and say it is not really free.

It is. Free agent, free API, free environment.

And the honest surprise from my own test is worth knowing.

I gave both setups the same prompt — create a beautiful website for an SEO agency — and the free Ling 3.0 output looked a little nicer than the Claude Code version on that run.

One test on one day, not a league table, but a decent reason not to assume free means worse.

Route	What you need	Extra cost	Best for
Existing subscriptions	Claude Code, Codex or OpenClaw	None	Anyone already paying
Free agent + free API	Hermes and a free API like Ling flash	None	Total beginners
One of each	A paid pane and a free pane	None	Comparing quality yourself

The Three Features You Will Use Every Day

Once you are past the quick start, three features do most of the work.

Split terminals

Right-click, split right, split down, and you have four agents on one project.

I have run Claude Code in one pane and Hermes in another, and you can add Kimi, Codex, OpenClaw or Antigravity to the rest.

Your throughput stops being limited by one model's speed, which is the whole reason the tool exists.

If you want a cheap second pane, my guide to Claude Code for free covers it.

Element select

You do not like the logo, so you select it, paste it into your coding agent, and give feedback on that one element.

There is no ambiguity about which thing you mean.

That single habit removes most wasted agent turns, because the agent stops editing the wrong component.

The annotation queue

Right-click anywhere on the preview and describe the change — "make the headline bright yellow" is enough detail.

Then pick your intent: a command means change this, and a question means what would work better here?

Adding an annotation does not fire immediately, which is deliberate.

You mark up ten things across the page, hit send once, and the agent works through the lot in one pass.

The Rest Of The Feature Set

Here is everything else in one table so you know what is waiting once the basics land.

Feature	What it does	Why it matters
Live browser preview	Renders your localhost inside Orca	You watch the build happen live
Mobile emulator	Xcode or Android Studio preview	Required for mobile app builds
Orca Mobile	Connects your phone by QR code	Run terminals away from the desk
Automations	Schedules recurring agent tasks	Daily improvements without you
Computer use skill	Agents control any app on your machine	Agents escape the editor
Orchestration skill	Agents coordinate with each other	Fewer collisions across panes
Voice	Talk to your agents	Handy for some, I do not use it

Orca Mobile is the one I am most curious about.

You scan a QR code and can then run your terminals and projects from your phone.

I have not put it through its paces yet, so I will not oversell it.

But I have tried remote coding through other tools and found it underwhelming, and driving several agents across several projects from a phone looks like a better idea.

The automation panel schedules agent tasks — iterating on a project daily, or researching a topic and drafting a post.

The honest catch is that your computer needs to be running for scheduled work to fire.

The two skills worth enabling install from the terminal by pressing enter: computer use, which lets agents control any app on your machine, and orchestration.

If agent desktop control is new to you, my post on OpenClaw computer use shows what that looks like day to day.

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Where Orca Fits Next To An Agent OS

Orca is excellent at being an environment for parallel coding agents.

It is not trying to run your whole business.

That is the job of an Agent OS — the wider agentic operating system where Hermes runs with shared memory, a mission-control dashboard, and skills for content, SEO, research and publishing.

You use Orca when the work is building software.

You use the Agent OS when the work is running the business around it.

Both can be free, which is the part most people do not believe until they try it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does this orca ade tutorial take to complete?

About five minutes for the quick start — download, open a project, start an agent, split the terminal, open a preview. Learning element select and annotations properly takes another session.

Is Orca really free?

Yes. Orca is free and open source. You either plug in subscriptions you already have, or run a free agent with a free API like Hermes with Ling flash. Neither route adds cost.

Which agents can I use in Orca?

Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, Kimi, OpenClaw and Antigravity among others. You can add, enable and disable agents in the settings and run several at once.

Do I need to code to use it?

You need to be comfortable running a project and describing what you want. The agents do the typing, and the annotation tools mean a lot of your direction is pointing and describing rather than writing code.

Can I really run four agents at once?

Yes. Split the terminal right and down and you can have several agents working the same project simultaneously.

What about mobile apps?

You can preview mobile builds using an Xcode emulator or an Android Studio virtual device, and one of those is required. Websites and tools preview in a normal browser tab.

Does Orca work when my computer is asleep?

No. Scheduled automations only fire while your machine is running, so plan recurring tasks around your desk hours.

About Julian

I'm Julian Goldie — AI entrepreneur, SEO expert, and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom (2,800+ members). I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation, and SEO.