T3 Code vs Orca (2026): features, agents and mobile

By Anurag Sharma. Last checked: November 4, 2026. Disclosure: Traycer makes this page. Every claim links to the vendor's own docs, repo or release page.

T3 Code (by Theo Browne and team) and Orca are both free, open source (MIT) apps for running coding agents you already pay for. T3 Code is a lightweight control surface: the ten providers its docs list plus the ACP Registry, with a web app and iOS and Android apps. Orca is a worktree-first desktop workspace with 27 supported agents, GPU terminals and a design mode. If you want several agents working one shared plan and reviewing each other, Traycer is our pick.

Both projects ship almost every day. Check the linked docs for anything that decides it for you. For the wider field, see the best tools to run coding agents in parallel.

T3 Code vs Orca at a glance#

What is T3 Code?#

T3 Code, by Theo Browne and team, calls itself an "agent harness control surface" (README (external site)). It doesn't replace your agents. It drives the ones already installed and signed in on your machine, using your existing subscriptions.

T3 Code's docs list ten providers (provider docs (external site)). The README names seven: Codex, Claude, Cursor, Grok Build, OpenCode, Google Antigravity and fx. The other three are Pi (Pi docs (external site)), Muse Code, which "is disabled by default" (Muse docs (external site)), and Kiro, an early access provider that arrived as "Kiro (beta)" in v0.1.7 (external site) on November 4, 2026. Beyond those ten, T3 Code can run any agent from the official ACP Registry (ACP providers (external site)).

You get an Electron desktop app, a command-line server (t3), a hosted web client at app.t3.codes (external site), and iOS and Android apps. The FAQ is clear about how the phone fits: "The phone is a remote. Your computer does the work and needs to stay on" (FAQ (external site)).

The team is upfront about maturity: "Expect bugs" (README (external site)). Stable releases are still 0.1.x, with nightly builds several times a day (releases (external site)).

What is Orca?#

Orca is "the agent development environment" from Stably AI, a Y Combinator-backed company (onorca.dev (external site)). It's a desktop app built around worktrees: "Orca is worktree-native" and "every task gets its own on-disk copy of the repo via git worktree" (worktrees (external site)).

Its homepage lists 27 supported agents, from Claude Code, Codex and Grok to Kiro, Qwen Code and Rovo Dev (onorca.dev (external site)), and its docs say "Orca works with any CLI agent" (supported agents (external site)). Around the agents you get terminals (onorca.dev calls it a "GPU-rendered terminal with splits"), a diff viewer, a Monaco editor and an embedded Chromium browser with Design Mode. Design Mode sends a clicked element's HTML, CSS and a screenshot to the agent (Design Mode (external site)).

Orca runs agents on remote machines over SSH (SSH worktrees (external site)), and its mobile companion for iOS and Android (an APK on Android) is in beta (mobile companion (external site)). It ships fast. The site says "New features shipped daily" (onorca.dev (external site)), and v1.4.248 landed on November 4, 2026 (release (external site)).

Agents and providers: which runs more?#

Counting rows, Orca wins: 27 named agents against the ten providers T3 Code's docs list. That count undersells T3 Code, though. Its ACP route is open-ended. Any agent in the ACP Registry, or a local ACP command, shows up next to the built-in providers in the same model picker (ACP providers (external site)).

Orca is open-ended in a different way. Its agent picker "just launches a process in a terminal", so any CLI agent runs, with deeper hooks, status and usage tracking for the preconfigured ones (supported agents (external site)).

Both run Claude Code and Codex side by side on your own subscriptions. Pick based on how you want to talk to agents: a chat-style thread in T3 Code, or a terminal-first workspace in Orca. Traycer supports 22 coding agents and model providers, from Claude Code and Codex to OpenRouter and Hugging Face (traycer.ai).

Worktrees and running agents in parallel#

Both isolate parallel work in git worktrees. Orca builds everything around them. Each worktree has its own branch, files and agent terminals, and you create, review, ship and delete it from one place (worktrees (external site)). Orca's docs even suggest racing three agents on the same task: "Same prompt, three branches, pick the winner" (recipe (external site)).

T3 Code makes worktrees a thread option. A thread can start in a new worktree, branch names follow your naming rules, and automatic cleanup is in Settings > Storage (project settings (external site), FAQ (external site)).

Neither tool makes a shared plan the core of parallel work. Orca's orchestration adds tasks with specs and dependencies, and messages between workers, but it's Experimental: you turn it on under Settings → Experimental (orchestration (external site)). As of v1.4.248 (November 4, 2026), the Orchestration panel is back as an experimental opt-in after being disabled in v1.4.247 (release notes (external site)). T3 Code has Plan and Build modes per thread and can delegate to child agents (ACP providers (external site)).

Mobile and remote access#

T3 Code has the wider spread of clients. There are iOS and Android apps from the App Store and Google Play, plus app.t3.codes (external site) in any browser. All of them connect to a machine running T3 Code through T3 Connect, LAN pairing or Tailscale (remote access (external site)). T3 Connect is free "for now" for up to 3 machines per account (FAQ (external site)).

Orca's mobile companion gives you agent status, terminal scrollback, quick replies, source control and new workspaces from your phone. Orca says "the desktop is always the source of truth" (mobile companion (external site)). Android installs from an APK (Android install (external site)). For remote compute, Orca offers SSH worktrees and remote Orca servers (SSH worktrees (external site)).

Traycer's iOS and Android apps are included on every plan, including Free (mobile app (external site)), and Traycer runs agents on your other machines as remote hosts (remote hosts (external site)).

Maturity, license and pace#

Both are MIT-licensed on GitHub (T3 Code (external site), Orca (external site)). On November 4, 2026, T3 Code had about 45,900 GitHub stars and Orca about 115,200.

Orca is further along by version number (v1.4.x) and ships a release most days. T3 Code is pre-1.0 (v0.1.7 stable, with nightlies), and its README says the team is "(mostly) not accepting contributions yet" (README (external site)). Orca also has an Enterprise page (external site). T3 Code says there's no way to pay for it at all (FAQ (external site)).

Where Traycer fits#

Traycer is a free, open source (MIT) desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, with iOS and Android apps (traycer.ai). Like T3 Code and Orca, it runs the agents you already pay for, each in its own worktree. The difference is what ties the agents together:

• One shared plan per Task. A Task holds the specs, tickets and reviews that every agent works from (artifact workflow (external site)).
• Agent-to-agent messaging. Agents create child agents, message each other across Tasks and hosts, and read each other's transcripts (agent-to-agent (external site)).
• Review against the plan. The execute skill starts one agent per ticket and "reviews each batch against the plan". A second agent can also write a review of any change (artifact workflow (external site), review guide (external site)).
• 22 coding agents and model providers, including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and Kiro (traycer.ai).
• Teams. Invite people to a Task as editors or viewers, or share it with your whole team on the Sync plan (sharing (external site), teams (external site)).
• Mobile on Free. iOS and Android apps on every plan (pricing, mobile app (external site)).

Per traycer.ai, Traycer has 11,000+ developers using Traycer Desktop and 40,000+ tasks created in Traycer Desktop. Traycer is SOC 2 Type 2 certified.

Choose T3 Code if you want the lightest setup, the broadest provider list through ACP, and a web app as well as phone apps, and you're fine with pre-1.0 software.

Choose Orca if you live in terminals and worktrees, want an editor, a browser with Design Mode and SSH worktrees in one desktop app, and work mostly solo.

For head-to-heads, see Traycer vs T3 Code and Traycer vs Orca.

Which should you pick? Our ranking#

1. Traycer: the pick for several agents building from one plan, reviewing against it and messaging each other, and for teams. It's free for individuals, with mobile included.
2. Orca: the pick for worktree-heavy solo developers who live in terminals and want Design Mode and SSH worktrees.
3. T3 Code: the pick for the lightest setup, the broadest provider list and a web app, if you can live with "Expect bugs".

T3 Code vs Orca vs Conductor#

Conductor is the other name in this comparison. Its desktop app runs only on macOS (installation (external site)), and it added an iOS app in 0.90.0 (external site) on October 2, 2026, listed on the Pro plan (pricing (external site)). T3 Code and Orca are free, open source (MIT) and run on Windows and Linux too. If you're weighing Conductor, see Conductor alternatives and Traycer vs Conductor.

FAQ#

Try Traycer#

• Download Traycer (free, open source) for macOS, Windows or Linux, with the iPhone and Android apps alongside.
• See how agents share one plan (external site)