ORCH — open-source CLI runtime with state machine and inter-agent messaging for coding agents #507

Turn Claude, Cursor, and Codex into one team.

Built ORCH — an open-source CLI runtime that orchestrates AI coding agents (Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, Cursor) as a typed engineering team. Sharing here since this community specifically focuses on agent orchestration.

Core architecture: formal state machine, auto-retry with retrying state, inter-agent messaging, shared context store, and TUI dashboard. Zero framework dependencies — pure TypeScript with layered DDD.

Technical differentiators vs parallel agent runners:

• Mandatory review gate: tasks cannot go to done without review. Prevents silent completions in production workflows
• Auto-retry with retrying state: fallen agents restart within the same task lifecycle, maintaining context
• Inter-agent messaging: orch msg send id and orch msg broadcast. Genuine agent-to-agent coordination
• Shared context: orch context set/get. Pipeline state accessible to all agents
• Programmatic API: @oxgeneral/orch npm package to embed the full engine in any Node.js app

5 adapters: claude (Claude Code), opencode (Codex/Gemini/Mistral), codex, cursor, shell.

State machine path:
todo -> in_progress -> review -> done
-> retrying -> in_progress
-> failed

1493 tests, TypeScript strict, MIT license.
npm install -g @oxgeneral/orch

GitHub: https://github.com/oxgeneral/ORCH