Remote & SSH

Orca can drive agents on remote machines over SSH — useful for long-running builds, GPU boxes, or any environment where your laptop isn't the right place to run the work.

Add an SSH target

1. Open Settings → SSH.
2. Add a target: host, user, port, optional identity file.
3. If the key is passphrase-protected, Orca will prompt the first time.
4. Click Test to verify connectivity.

Use a target

When creating a worktree, choose an SSH target instead of Local. Orca will:

• Create the git worktree on the remote host.
• Run agents remotely through the SSH connection.
• Sync file events so the editor, diff, and browser still feel local.

Passphrases

Passphrases are held in memory for the life of the Orca session. Closing Orca clears them. You can opt into a longer TTL under SSH settings.

Status

Remote worktrees show a chip with live SSH status — green connected, yellow reconnecting, red disconnected. Disconnects don't kill running agents; Orca reconnects and re-attaches. Agent status (working / idle / blocked) propagates over SSH the same way it does locally, so the sidebar and Agents feed reflect remote agents in real time.

Sessions across app close

Closing the desktop app no longer kills your remote PTY sessions. The SSH side keeps the shells alive and Orca re-attaches to the same scrollback when you reopen the app — the agent doesn't restart and you don't lose context.

Port forwarding

For remote worktrees, the right sidebar shows a Ports tab (toggle with Cmd+Shift+I). Orca scans /proc/net/tcp on the remote and lists listening ports under Detected — one click forwards them to your laptop. You can also add forwards manually, edit them, or remove them. Forwards persist across app restarts and SSH reconnects, and privileged remote ports auto-remap locally (e.g. remote 80 → local 10080).